Museo Civico di Palazzo dei Consoli

Gubbio's Civic Museum occupies the great Gothic town hall of the fourteenth century on Piazza Grande. Seven bronze tablets written in the ancient Umbrian language, a picture gallery, Renaissance luster ceramics and a civic coin cabinet are housed within the palace.

Why it matters

This is the museum of Gubbio's history, kept in the building the commune raised to embody its political life. The Comune di Gubbio presents Palazzo dei Consoli as an expression of the Eugubine commune's ambitions at the start of the fourteenth century; the museum has been installed here since 1909 and narrates the city from prehistory to the twentieth century. The Tavole Iguvine, seven bronze tablets inscribed between roughly the second and first centuries BC, preserve the most important surviving text in the Umbrian language and an extensive description of ancient religious rites. The ceramics section includes Renaissance lusterware from Mastro Giorgio Andreoli's workshop. The collections also include archaeology, painting, a Tibetan collection and the bell rung by foot.

What to notice

The palace, with a tower over sixty metres tall, has a fan-shaped staircase rising to the portal, four facade buttresses, paired arched windows and Guelph crenellations. The municipal page records the architect Angelo da Orvieto's name above the entrance; the regional portal notes Matteo di Giovannello, known as Gattapone, also contributed to the works. The lunette fresco above the portal was painted in 1495 by Bernardino di Nanni dell'Eugenia and later reworked by Benedetto Nucci. Inside, the Sala dell'Arengo runs along the first floor beneath barrel vaults; the palace also preserves a palatine chapel and a corridor with medieval latrines and water piping. Gallery highlights include the early-fourteenth-century Crucifix by the Maestro della Croce di Gubbio, Sinibaldo Ibi's early-sixteenth-century Gonfalone, and Francesco Signorelli's Immacolata Concezione of 1527. The Campanone bell dates to 1769 and is rung with the feet; the coin cabinet includes medieval, ducal and papal issues associated with Gubbio's mint.

Context and history

The palace was built between 1332 and the end of the following decade as the seat of government at the city's centre, beside the suspended square begun by the commune. The Comune dates the fabric to 1332–1338; the regional heritage portal gives the campaign as 1332–1349. The Civic Museum moved into the palace in 1909. Its archaeological section includes Umbrian and Roman material, while the numismatic cabinet follows coinage from the medieval and papal periods. The ceramics collection ranges from fourteenth-century archaic maiolica to the nineteenth century. A Risorgimento collection and a Tibetan collection donated by an English diplomat extend the museum's scope; a separate display of artist-designed jugs is installed with the Ceri collection in Via Baldassini.