Palazzo della Ragione

Palazzo della Ragione stands in Italy, its pale stone façade and pointed loggia arches giving it a clear medieval profile. It went up at the end of the twelfth century as a centre for politics and administration. Citizens gathered here to debate communal affairs and make decisions. That working start ranks it among the oldest surviving municipal palaces in Italy. Nearly a thousand years on, it still shapes two sides of the square it serves.

Under Venetian rule the palace became the city courthouse, where judges heard disputes between citizens. A fire damaged the building in 1513, and Pietro Isabello with his son Leonardo renewed key parts between 1538 and 1554. Their work gave the portico Tuscan columns and cross vaults. The great upper hall took its distinctive roof at the same time. Once the Venetians left, it served first as a theatre and then as the city library from 1843 to 1928.

Look up into the Sala delle Capriate, where seven wooden trusses carry the roof. The walls keep frescoes from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, some attributed to the school of Giotto. Fragments of the Seven Sages of Antiquity, painted by Donato Bramante in 1477, survive in the room. A radiant sun among them stands for justice and authority. Today the hall hosts exhibitions and events once more. In summer the GAMeC brings contemporary art into this medieval room, with artists including Jenny Holzer, Daniel Buren and Rachel Whiteread. Look down as well: a sundial set into a marble slab in 1798 still keeps time. A beam of sunlight falls through the gnomon and marks local noon and the date, a bright point moving over the stone.