The Palazzo della Ragione ("Palace of Reason") is a historic building of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

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 ...

, located in Piazza Mercanti, facing the Loggia degli Osii. It was built in the 13th century and originally served as a

broletto A ''broletto'' in Italy in the Middle Ages, medieval Italy communes was the place where the whole population met for democratic assemblies, and where the elected men lived and administered justice. ''Broletto'' is an ancient Italian language, It ...

(i.e., an administrative building) as well as a judicial seat. As it was the second broletto to be built in Milan, it is also known as the Broletto Nuovo ("new broletto"). The palace is decorated with a relief representing Oldrado da Tresseno ( of Milan and fierce prosecutor of the

Cathar Catharism ( ; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian quasi- dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a he ...

heretics), and the

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

of the ''

scrofa semilanuta {{Italics title The ''scrofa semilanuta'' ( English: "half-woollen boar") is an ancient emblem of the city of Milan, Italy, dating back at least to the Middle Ages — and, according to a local legend, to the very foundation of Milan. Several anci ...

'' ("half-woolly sow"), which has been object of much controversy among scholars of the foundation and origins of Milan.

History

The building was constructed between 1228 and 1233Piazza Mercanti
/ref> for Oldrado da Tresseno. It maintained a central role in the administrative and public life of Milan until the late 18th century. In 1773, under Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

, it was restored and enlarged to serve as legal archives. The structural changes were designed by architect Francesco Croce, who added a new upper floor with large round windows and restyled the whole building based on Neoclassic canons. Other major modifications of the buildings were done in 1854 by architect Enrico Terzaghi; these included glass panes that closed the ground floor

ambulatory The ambulatory ( 'walking place') is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th century but by the 13t ...

, which was reopened between 1905 and 1907. Between 1866 and 1870, the building housed the headquarters of the

Banca Popolare di Milano Banca Popolare di Milano S.p.A. also known as Bipiemme or just BPM is an Italian bank based in Milan, Lombardy. The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco BPM. Banca Popolare di Milano S.c. a r.l., an urban area cooperative bank, was founded ...

, a major Milanese bank, but thereafter returned to its function as a legal archives seat until 1970. In 1978, Marco Dezzi Bardeschi restored the building again, but he strongly opposed any proposal of structural change, including that of removing the upper floor added by Croce. Palazzo della Ragione inspired the design of another renowned building in the Milanese area, the Arengario of

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

References

Sources

*Oscar Pedro Melano, ''Milano di terracotta e mattoni'', Mazzotta, 2002. {{Milan landmarks Ragione Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century Medieval Italian architecture Tourist attractions in Milan