In the historic center of Marcianise is Palazzo Grauso, once the guesthouse of the adjacent Palazzo del Canonico Giovan Battista Novelli (1764). The building was renovated in 1900 by the pharmacist Eugenio Grauso who moved there in 1914, opening his pharmaceutical laboratory on the street level, and living with his family on the first floor decorated in a late 19th century Liberty style.
Entering from the road and past the entrance hall you reach the garden courtyard, furnished with cast iron elements from another Grauso residence located in San Leucio (Caserta) where the family, of Dutch origin, had moved at the end of the century to establish a silk factory (which won the bronze medal at the 1878 Paris Universal Exposition).
On the first floor, which is accessed by a large and bright staircase, there is a row of rooms decorated with 19th and 20th century furniture. In the living room of the Aurora, the ceiling was painted in 1914 by Luigi Taglialatela (Giugliano 1877-1953). Portraits of the founders of the Grauso silk factories decorate the walls of the studio while delicate botanical tables with the subject of “Camellia Japonica” enrich the walls of the red dining room.
The house has a cozy, intimate and refined atmosphere: the colored cement floors from the early twentieth century are perfectly preserved; the original silk curtains produced by the Grauso company are all in place as are the original, deeply-colored wallpapers.