Palazzo del Podesta

Forlì’s Palazzo del Podestà, on the west side of Piazza Aurelio Saffi, was rebuilt around 1460 under Matteo di Riceputo, identified as an uncle of Melozzo degli Ambrogi. The Gothic façade combines a pointed-arch portico with terracotta windows in two orders and capitals bearing civic and Ordelaffi symbols.

Why it matters

The palace replaced an earlier public building that collapsed soon after construction. Its rebuilding in the second half of the fifteenth century under Matteo di Riceputo made it part of the Gothic ensemble around Piazza Saffi. Its carved capitals bring together symbols of the people’s authority and the Ordelaffi family, reflecting the city’s changing civic and signorial rule.

What to notice

The pointed arches of the portico rest on capitals carved with angular leaves, the people’s cross and the Ordelaffi arms. Above them, the façade has two orders of single and double lancet windows in terracotta. Traces of the iron cage installed on the façade in 1426 remain visible. A balcony added during the early twentieth-century restoration was modelled on the cage’s former fixing points.

Context and history

The Albertini family, apothecaries who owned the neighbouring palace, held the block into the early eighteenth century. A restoration in the first half of the twentieth century consolidated the structure and added the balcony, giving the façade part of the form seen today.