The Palazzo del Podestà is a civic building in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The edifice was built around 1200 as the seat of the local ''

podestà (), also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a c ...

'', the various functionaries of the commune. It stands on the

Piazza Maggiore Piazza Maggiore (''Piâza Mażåur'' in the Bolognese dialect, Bolognese language) is a central square in Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, largely preserving its 15th century layout. The Northwest corner opens into Piazza del Nettuno wit ...

, near the Palazzo Comunale and facing the Basilica of San Petronio. Proving insufficient for the massive participation of the people in the city's government, it was in 1245 flanked by the

Palazzo Re Enzo Palazzo Re Enzo is a palace located on Piazza del Nettuno, 1 in the historic center of Bologna, northern Italy. The palace takes its name from Enzio of Sardinia, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Frederick II's son, who was prisoner here from 1249 unt ...

, over which stands the ''Torre dell'Arengo'', whose bell was used to call the people during emergencies. The Palazzo del Podestà is a long building, with a large hall on the upper floor. The lower floor is a double open arcade, the so-called ''Voltone del Podestà'', through which pass two lanes of shops. In 1453, Aristotile Fioravanti replaced the bell and reconstructed the original Gothic façade in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

by order of Giovanni II Bentivoglio. In the ''Voltone'', in 1525, were placed the

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

statues of the city's protectors, Sts. Petronius, Proculus, Dominic and Francis, all by Alfonso Lombardi. In the 16th–18th centuries, the Palazzo was used as a theatre. In the 20th century, it was frescoed by Adolfo de Carolis.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo del Podesta Podesta Renaissance architecture in Bologna