Antico Palazzo di Città

The Antico Palazzo di Città has served as a centre of Mondovì's civic life since the commune's foundation at the end of the 12th century. Standing on Piazza Maggiore in the medieval rione Piazza, the building layers early-17th-century remodelling, 18th-century porticoes and sgraffito, a painted protectress of the city and frescoed council halls, and it still hosts the municipal historical archive.

Why it matters

The palace has served as the seat of the Comune since the city's foundation in the late twelfth century. It was here, in 1236, that Mondovì's council, at war with its feudal lord the Bishop of Asti, sealed a mutual defence pact with Alessandria on 2 May through 173 councillors from the two communities, an episode renewed symbolically in 1848 with an exchange of flags. The palace preserves the city’s political memory on Piazza Maggiore, among the historic buildings of rione Piazza.

What to notice

• The façade image of the Regina Montis Regalis, the city's protectress, painted by Guido di Montezemolo (1878-1941); it replaced an older image removed at the end of the 19th century to make way for a clock that originally hung on the arch linking the Missione church with the Jesuit college.
• The stone columns of the portico and the sgraffito-decorated string courses, products of the mid-18th-century restructuring.
• The terracotta elements on the western wall, dating to the 15th century and the oldest visible fabric.
• The early-1600s remodelling by Giovanni Goano, an architect of the Lugano dynasty of builders working across Piedmont.
• The Sala degli Stemmi on the second floor, frescoed with the coats of arms of the main municipalities of the old Province of Mondovì, and the Sala delle Bandiere on the first floor with its Risorgimento-style ceiling bearing the arms of Alessandria, an echo of the 1236 alliance.

Context and history

The palace's story is the story of Mondovì's autonomy. From the late 12th-century foundation of the commune, the building on Piazza Maggiore served as the city's administrative seat through the medieval struggles against feudal powers, the 1236 alliance with Alessandria against the Bishop of Asti, and the Savoy reorganisation of the territory. Its fabric changed over time: Giovanni Goano reshaped it extensively in the early 17th century, and a mid-18th-century restructuring added the portico columns and the sgraffito bands that give the façade its current character, while 15th-century terracotta on the west wall survives from earlier phases. In the 19th century the image of the city's protectress was displaced by a clock, and the painter Guido di Montezemolo later restored the iconographic programme with his Regina Montis Regalis. The palace's documented exhibition use and municipal archive continue its civic role.