Chamber of the Grand and General Council of San Marino

The (‘Public Palace’) is the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

of the

City of San Marino The City of San Marino ( it, Città di San Marino; also known simply as San Marino and locally as Città) is the capital city of the Republic of San Marino. It has a population of 4,061. It is on the western slopes of San Marino's highest poi ...

as well as its official Government Building. The building, where official State ceremonies take place, is the seat of the Republic's main institutional and administrative bodies: the Captains Regent, the

Grand and General Council The Grand and General Council ( it, Consiglio Grande e Generale) is the parliament of San Marino. The council has 60 members elected for a five-year term. History From the fifth century San Marino was ruled by an assembly composed by all t ...

, the Council of XII, and the

Congress of State A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...

. The main section of the building is topped by

battlements A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

over a series of

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s. The clock tower above also features such an arrangement with battlements and corbels. The overall design is similar to the

Palazzo Vecchio The Palazzo Vecchio ( "Old Palace") is the City hall, town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David (Michelangelo), David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent ...

in Florence, but on a much smaller scale. Located on the site of an ancient building called the ''Domus Magna Comunis'', the current building was designed by the Roman architect Francesco Azzurri and was built between 1884 and 1894. After a hundred years of existence, it was becoming unsafe in today's standards, so a complex restoration project was undergone. The intervention was completed by the internationally renowned architect

Gae Aulenti Gaetana "Gae" Aulenti (; 4 December 1927–31 October 2012) was an Italian architect and designer who was active in furniture design, graphic design, stage design, lighting design, exhibition and interior design. She was known for her contrib ...

on 30 September 1996.

References

Buildings and structures in the City of San Marino Seats of local government in Europe Presidential residences Government buildings completed in 1894 {{SanMarino-stub