Palazzo Fauzone di Nucetto

On via Giolitti, in the walled quarter of Mondovì Piazza, the Gothic facade of the Palazzo Fauzone di Nucetto marks one of the oldest surviving constructions of the city. Facing the former courthouse, the palace anchors one of the quarter's characteristic streetscapes.

Why it matters

Hilltop Mondovì preserves its medieval fabric better than most Piedmontese cities, and a Gothic palace still standing in domestic use is a rare survival. The municipal itinerary describes the building as "one of the most ancient constructions" of the city, in Gothic style, on the street renamed for Giovanni Giolitti, the Mondovì-born statesman who dominated Italian parliamentary life around the turn of the twentieth century and was born on the street itself. The palace therefore carries a double claim: architectural antiquity within the medieval quarter, and membership of the Fauzone family network, one of the most prominent lineages of the city and of the Savoyard Piedmont, whose name appears on more than one Mondovì palace.

What to notice

The palace's position on via Giolitti invites comparison: the Gothic forms of the Fauzone di Nucetto palace — pointed arches and the austere massing typical of the city's earliest stone houses — face the grander, later front of the Palazzo Cordero di Montezemolo across the street, so the visitor sees two centuries of urban ambition in a single glance. Their contrasting materials and window openings reflect different periods, while both align with the ancient street grid.

The street itself is part of the monument. Via Vico, which the itinerary follows nearby, was the ancient gate towards Vicoforte, once so congested that half of it was closed to traffic; the Cittadella, built on the order of Duke Emanuele Filiberto between 1573 and 1576, lies at the other end of the quarter's history — a fortress that erased the Renaissance duomo, converting its walls into fortifications. The house where Giovanni Giolitti was born is also part of this historic quarter.

Context and history

The palace belongs to the first flourishing of the hilltop commune, when noble families built stone residences inside the walls of the Piazza quarter — the same confident seasons that made the city, between 1560 and 1566, the seat of Piedmont's first university. The Fauzone were among the most blazoned families of the city and of the Savoyard state, and different branches gave their names to separate buildings: this palace recalls the Nucetto line, while the Fauzone di Germagnano palace on the main square became the ceramics museum. Reading the two together shows how a single lineage marked the medieval and baroque faces of the quarter across five centuries.

The building's later life has been domestic and private: unlike the Fauzone di Germagnano palace, it was never converted to museum or government use, and the municipality presents it as part of the historic streetscape. That is its value — a piece of the quarter's original architecture still woven into everyday streets, encountered the way residents encounter it.