Palazzo Comunale di Bra

Bra's town hall is a building of two eras: a medieval core wearing an eighteenth-century redesign by Bernardo Antonio Vittone, whose undulating façade gives the civic square its character. Sundials, a grand 1897 staircase and a Council Chamber lined with busts of famous citizens make the exterior and representative rooms worth a deliberate look.

Why it matters

Bra's Palazzo Comunale is notable for its architecture. Here Bernardo Antonio Vittone reworked a medieval building into an eighteenth-century civic palace whose façade moves in gentle waves, the "facciata con andamento mosso" the municipal portal highlights among the city's landmarks. It is also the seat of a town celebrated in Italy and beyond as the homeland of the Slow Food movement, giving the building contemporary resonance as well as historic fabric.

What to notice

The façade on Piazza Carlo Alberto has an undulating profile and two sundials flanking the large fresco above the main entrance. Along Via Monte di Pietà, the older medieval face of the complex contrasts with the later design. Representative rooms include the historic entrance hall associated with Vittone, the staircase rebuilt in 1897, the Council Chamber with busts of Bra citizens, and the Sala della Resistenza, which preserves artefacts of the local partisan struggle during the Second World War.

Context and history

The palace's origins are medieval; the portion along Via Monte di Pietà still shows that oldest fabric. The transformation into the building seen today came with the eighteenth-century redesign by Bernardo Antonio Vittone, who unified the front with its characteristic wavy movement and planned the entrance atrio leading to the Council Chamber — a compositional idea typical of his civic and religious work across Piedmont. The monumental staircase of 1897 modernised access in the late nineteenth century, and the Sala della Resistenza was dedicated after the war to the memory of the partisan struggle. The historic wing was adapted for the municipality's representative rooms above and behind a newer services building.