Ex Palazzo Municipale

Built in 1581 beside the little harbour, Gargnano's former town hall still hosts civic life through its ground-floor loggia. Rusticated white stone, a coffered council ceiling, a nineteenth-century theatre backdrop and cannonballs from the 1866 Austrian bombardment meet in a single lakeside square.

Why it matters

A town hall tells you how a community saw itself at the moment it could afford one. Gargnano built this palace in 1581, when the towns of the Brescian Garda were competing in stone, and it hired Giovanni Traffegnini to design a building that recalled the manner of the great Brescian architect Todeschini. The building later ceased to serve as the town hall, but its loggia and upper hall remain part of Gargnano’s civic heritage; the walls also bear marks of the 1866 Austrian bombardment. The palace is a record of Gargnano’s civic history.

What to notice

On the lake side, the palace closes the piazza near the porticciolo. The ground floor is an open loggia on pillars of white stone worked a bugnato, rusticated in the robust manner that Todeschini's circle favoured — the loggia has long formed a public space. Under the portico, a memorial plaque commemorates the 1866 bombardment. Cannonballs from the Austrian attack remain embedded in the facades of the palace and nearby houses, material traces of the Third War of Independence. The upper-floor hall was once the council chamber. Its wooden coffered ceiling is partly painted, and the room preserves nineteenth-century stage scenery from Gargnano’s old theatre. On the side facing the promenade stands the monument to the town's fallen of both world wars, its bronze plaque the work of the sculptor Claudio Botta in the 1920s.

Context and history

Construction dates to 1581. Giovanni Traffegnini designed the building, which was completed by the end of 1582. White stone from San Vigilio was chosen after debate and is credited with the palace’s good preservation. Traffegnini, described as an architect or master mason, drew on the manner of Todeschini, a designer of public buildings in Brescia. The sala on the piano nobile spans nearly four bays of the loggia below. It also contains a fifteenth-century memorial cippus bearing the commune’s coat of arms. The 1866 bombardment took place during the Third War of Independence, when Austrian naval forces shelled lakeside towns supporting Italian volunteers. Converted after the municipal offices moved, the palace served as Gargnano’s exhibition and assembly hall.