In 1455 this rich merchant built his own house behind the XIV century Torre del Salaro, on the southern side of piazza delle Erbe.

You may still admire the terracotta floral pattern on its Gothic façade, and a marble architrave upon the entry door, depicting several goods the merchant sold.

The house of Giovan Boniforte da Concorezzo is also known as the ‘merchant’s house’ and dates from 1455. Nowhere else in Mantua is there such a well-conserved and fine quality International Gothic secular building. The designer of this sophisticated construction is unknown but it is certainly a unitary whole of taste and proportion. The facade, above an architraved portico comprising four columns in Verona red marble, has two beautiful friezes, slender brick columns separating the storeys and friezes below the windows.

The builders of this house-shop were inspired by various sources:  Lombard style appears in the slender suspended stone columns; Oriental inspiration is seen in the broad brick edging on the windows, with leaf motifs (first tier) and scrolls (second tier); and, finally, the Veneto influence is manifest in the overall design of the decoration.