Palazzo Comunale (Livorno): Historic Seat of Municipal Government
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Habsburg, Italian
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Town Hall
On this page10 sections
History
Palazzo Comunale (Livorno) is the historic seat of municipal government in Livorno, Italy. A new municipal palace was begun in 1720 on Piazza d’Armi, now Piazza Grande, to designs by the architect Giovanni del Fantasia. Before that building existed, Livorno’s municipal representatives met in two ancient parish churches that later disappeared and then in a building on Via del Porticciolo.
Construction and Reconstruction
The palace was severely damaged by the earthquake of 1742. Almost the entire building was reconstructed in 1745, when the architect Bernardino Ciurini added the monumental double staircase. This rebuilding established the principal form of the municipal palace that continued to develop in later periods.
Expansion and Twentieth-Century Changes
In 1867, the palace was enlarged through the incorporation of rooms in a building behind it. The Council Chamber was inaugurated in 1919. In 1929, when the building became the seat of the podestà, a municipal chief magistrate, extensive restoration and major internal alterations were undertaken by the engineer Enrico Salvais, assisted by the engineer Luigi Pastore.
Bombing during the Second World War destroyed one wing of the palace. The external staircase was partly dismantled, and its marble was looted. The building was restored after the war and inaugurated again in 1949 in the presence of Livorno’s mayor, Furio Diaz.
After the war, some municipal offices moved to the adjacent Palazzo dell’Anagrafe. That building occupies the site of an elegant eighteenth-century structure designed by the Florentine architect and sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini and, earlier, the site of the so-called small Genoese harbor. Palazzo Comunale stands behind Palazzo Grande and faces the square that, before the Second World War, extended to the churchyard of Livorno Cathedral. Palazzo della Dogana and Palazzo Granducale also stand there, housing the Chamber of Commerce and the provincial administration.
Remains
Exterior and Civic Layout
The main facade is centered on a double marble staircase leading to the first floor. A small bell tower rises above the building. Its bell formerly summoned the municipal council and sounded during major celebrations. The palace’s surviving exterior therefore combines a formal entrance with a feature directly connected to the rhythms of municipal life.
Interior Rooms and Collections
Heraldic Gallery
The heraldic gallery contains more than fifty coats of arms. They include the arms of Livorno’s first castellan, an official responsible for a castle or fortified place, the city’s first governors, and its first gonfalonier, a senior civic officeholder. The gallery also displays the arms of the Medici, the ruling dynasty of Florence and Tuscany, and of the Knights of Santo Stefano, a Tuscan religious-military order founded under Medici patronage. Memorial plaques commemorating important historical events are installed on the first-floor walls.
Ceremonial Hall
The ceremonial hall contains a Murano crystal chandelier and two large seventeenth-century paintings. Luca Giordano’s Fair Outside the Walls of the City of Livorno is accompanied by Ferdinand II de’ Medici and the Port of Livorno by the Flemish painter Justus Sustermans. The hall leads to the room used by the municipal executive committee and to the mayor’s office.
Mayor’s Office
The mayor’s office preserves the Capperuccio, a historic civic artifact given by Ferdinand I de’ Medici to the Livornese gonfalonier Benedetto Borromei in 1606. Its presence connects the modern municipal rooms with the period when Medici government was closely associated with Livorno’s development.
Council Chamber
The Council Chamber occupies the eastern addition and is the largest room in the building. Its decoration includes bas-reliefs depicting the history of Livorno. Busts of Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, Vincenzo Malenchini, Enrico Mayer, Angelica Palli, Francesco Bonaini, Giuseppe Orosi, Carlo Bini, and Enrico Pollastrini are displayed on the entrance doors.
The chamber also preserves the flag used in Livorno’s defense during the siege of 1849 and a large eighteenth-century painting attributed to Lorenzo Fratellini, depicting Livorno and its port.
