Loggia del Lionello

The Loggia del Lionello is Udine’s historic town hall, a Venetian Gothic building of alternating white and pink stone in Piazza della Libertà. Begun in 1448, it was rebuilt after a fire in 1876 and continues to serve as a municipal building.

Why it matters

The loggia was begun at the request of Venetian lieutenant Nicolò Savorgnano as a public palace for the city council. Nicolò Lionello, a local goldsmith, designed it with master builder Bartolomeo delle Cisterne. The structure was completed by 1456, while its exterior stonework was finished in 1548. The building expresses the civic authority of Udine under Venetian rule.

What to notice

The façade’s white-and-pink stone courses frame the pointed arches of the open loggia. Above, a five-light tracery window sits between two trifore. In a corner niche, Bartolomeo Bon’s Madonna and Child, made around 1450, includes a carved model of Udine’s castle as it appeared before the 1511 earthquake. Inside, the building preserves civic artworks and furnishings, including the statue Patria del Friuli by Andrea Flaibani. A fresco by Giuseppe Ghedina reinterprets a Madonna by Pordenone painted in 1516; that original fresco was almost entirely destroyed in the 1876 fire, with a surviving fragment now in the castle’s picture gallery.

Context and history

The building served as the seat of Udine’s city council under Venetian rule and stands opposite the city’s castle on the hill. The 1876 fire gutted the loggia. Architect Andrea Scala directed its reconstruction, restoring the Gothic exterior while adapting the interior for municipal use. The regional heritage catalogue lists Bartolomeo delle Cisterne, Pietro Lombardo, Giovanni da Udine and Andrea Scala among the building’s authors and records its continuing use for civic offices and representation.