As such, he designed many prestigious buildings in Turin, where the Royal palace was found, and in a number of places in the Asti area. In the mid-19th century Turin was an influential European city hosting important cultural institutions and one of Italy’s oldest Schools of Architecture.

In Ticino Leopoldo Galli was behind the reworking of the building known as “La Romantica”, located at Melide at one end of the causeway, and razed in 2013 to make room for a modern block owned by the entrepreneur Pacolli. The building, which had earlier belonged to a rich family from Melide, was expanded and completed in 1852. It reflected the Turin style adopted by Galli in many of his works.

Leopoldo Galli died in Bissone in 1869. His headstone reads “Architect to H.R.H. Vittorio Emanuele II”. The white marble bust depicting him has been attributed to

the Ticinese sculptor Vincenzo Vela, whom Leopoldo Galli was friends with, and with whom he collaborated in Turin.