Palazzo Aldobrandeschi: Provincial Government Palace in Grosseto
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page10 sections
History
Palazzo Aldobrandeschi is a civic government palace in Grosseto, Italy, built between 1900 and 1903 in the Gothic Revival style for the Province of Grosseto. Also called Palazzo della Provincia, it was commissioned, owned, and occupied by the provincial government, and it remains its seat today. The building replaced an older civic complex on the same site and gave Piazza Dante a monumental public landmark in the historic center.
From Palazzo Pretorio to a New Headquarters
At the beginning of 1898, five hundred citizens of Grosseto petitioned the Provincial Council to purchase and restore the ancient Palazzo Pretorio. This historic civic and administrative palace had once housed civil magistracies and public offices, but by then it contained private apartments and shops. Its fabric consisted of four sections that had been joined together.
The petition reflected a desire to keep the provincial headquarters within the city’s historic center. When the council considered constructing a new headquarters outside the walls, strong public opposition led it to abandon that proposal. The council instead approved a new building on the Palazzo Pretorio site, with the older structures scheduled for demolition.
Design and Construction
Lorenzo Porciatti and engineer Ciriaco Salvadori were commissioned to prepare the project. A committee chaired by the Perugian architect Guglielmo Calderini selected Porciatti’s proposal for its cost and aesthetic quality. Calderini also advised substantial revisions to the design that was eventually built.
Demolition began in autumn 1899, and the Grosseto firm Piero Ciabatti started construction on 5 April 1900. The work cost 68,408 lire, and the palace was completed between 1900 and 1903. It was officially inaugurated on 31 May 1903 in the presence of the authorities.
The name Palazzo Aldobrandeschi derives from the Aldobrandeschi, a powerful medieval noble family associated with southern Tuscany and the Maremma. The name was adopted because the site was once mistakenly believed to have been occupied by their medieval castle. The palace’s construction, strongly supported by Grosseto’s population, established a lasting connection between provincial government and the city’s principal square.
Remains
Palazzo Aldobrandeschi occupies a prominent position on Piazza Dante, beside the entrance to Via Ricasoli, which descends toward Piazza del Sale. Its polygonal plan creates an articulated mass of two-, three-, and four-storey sections with an additional mezzanine. Travertine, a porous limestone widely used in central Italian architecture, is combined with brick to create a Gothic Revival composition recalling public buildings in the Sienese Gothic tradition.
Exterior Architecture
Principal Facade
The asymmetrical principal facade is arranged in four sections, consisting of two towers separated by two lower bodies. The tower nearer the cathedral is taller. At ground level, a travertine base frames an archivolted portal, five window openings, and a slit window. Their segmental arches and pointed archivolts are accompanied by six lunette areas, the curved spaces above the openings, containing heraldic shields.
The piano nobile, the formal principal floor of an Italian palace, has a more symmetrical arrangement. Seven trifora windows, each divided into three openings, have trefoil arches, marble colonnettes, brick archivolts, and heraldic shields in their upper curved spaces. The central opening is a French window leading to a small balcony supported by Renaissance-style marble brackets and finished with a perforated marble sill.
On the third floor are three trefoil-headed bifora windows, each divided into two openings, together with a quadrifora corresponding to the central tower. The westernmost tower has two square openings with moulded marble frames at its fourth level. Above them, the facade ends in a corbelled cornice with brick arches and marble brackets, followed by a crenellated attic of brick and travertine. Simple slit openings pierce the merlons, distinguishing the principal facade from the lateral elevations.
Side Elevations and Corner
The chamfered corner facing Via Galilei has a polygonal marble balcony at the first level and a window with a mixed-profile archivolt. Here, the attic crenellation gives way to an arch carried on pillars, evoking the sail-like upper forms of medieval bell towers.
The four-level western elevation has brick masonry on its first three floors and simple archivolted openings. It ends in a four-bay, round-arched loggia set within a travertine facing. The two-level eastern elevation is a plain brick wall with three arched openings on each floor. Together, these elevations show how the building’s Gothic Revival vocabulary was adapted to its irregular polygonal plan.
Interior Spaces
Vestibule and Stairwell
The portal from the square opens into a vestibule with painted wall designs and a false Gothic cross-vault. To its right are a large meeting room, extensively refurbished during a later restoration, and service rooms. To the left are the porter’s office, the service staircase, and the elevator. The pietra serena staircase, made from blue-grey sandstone traditionally used for stairs and columns, resulted from restoration work in the 1990s and was inspired by Carlo Scarpa’s work.
The central stairwell has a medievalizing character. A cross-vault rests on brackets, while a trifora window illuminates the space. The three-flight staircase incorporates an octagonal travertine pillar and a balustrade formed by small pietra serena columns.
Provincial Offices and Council Chamber
The piano nobile contains the directors’ offices and the Provincial Council Chamber, which lies above the conference room. On its north side, the chamber has three pointed single-light windows overlooking a small internal courtyard. Florentine painters Torrini and Vanni supplied its Gothic Revival wall decoration, while the wooden desks and seats were designed by Porciatti.
The service staircase reaches the third floor, which occupies two of the building’s four sections. Offices are arranged around a central corridor. The fourth floor consists of a single room within the western tower, while the remaining area forms a usable terrace spread across several levels and connected by stairs.
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