Piazza del Popolo (con Palazzo dei Priori)

Piazza del Popolo is Montalcino's historic civic square, dominated by the Palazzo dei Priori and its tower. Heraldry, a loggia and a Medici statue give architectural form to successive periods of local government.

Why it matters

The palace housed administrative and judicial functions as the town's political circumstances changed. The square brings that institutional history into a public setting shared with commerce and civic gathering.

What to notice

Coats of arms set into the facade recall the podestà who governed Montalcino. Giovanni Berti's statue of Cosimo I, dated 1564, stands under the loggia. Alterations to the tower and later brickwork distinguish different stages of construction rather than a wholly untouched medieval exterior.

Context and history

The palace developed during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its uses included the podestà's offices, prisons and later judicial administration. The Leopoldine reform of 1777 brought further institutional changes. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century restoration altered the building, and work in 1912 uncovered medieval maiolica jugs in the filling of a loggia vault, connecting the palace with the town's material history.