Palazzo Municipale (Palazzo Rosso)

Belluno's town hall, Palazzo Rosso, closes one side of Piazza Duomo. Giuseppe Segusini's neo-Gothic building of 1834–38 stands on the site of the medieval town hall, la Caminata; it incorporates sculptural decoration and civic emblems salvaged from the older structure.

Why it matters

Segusini's municipal palace grew out of the sixteenth-century Palazzo del Vicario and the earlier Palazzo della Caminata, the seat of the Comunità di Cividàl di Belluno. When the medieval town hall became too damaged to restore and was demolished in the nineteenth century, sculptural ornament, coats of arms and busts of Venetian rectors were preserved in the new building. The name Palazzo Rosso comes from the colour of its exterior walls.

What to notice

Relief fragments, heraldic shields and portrait busts of Venetian rectors from the demolished Caminata are incorporated into the neo-Gothic façade. Segusini used a related band of busts on the nearby Teatro Comunale. The council chamber contains a neoclassical fresco cycle by Giovanni De Min depicting medieval deeds of the Bellunese community, with portraits of notable Bellunesi by Antonio Tessari.

Context and history

Local historians trace Belluno's original town hall to the thirteenth century, with a substantial rebuilding in 1476. The Caminata served the community of Cividàl di Belluno; its walls once carried frescoes attributed to Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo da Montagnana and Pomponio Amalteo. Fragments from the decoration are preserved in the civic museum. Segusini gave the municipal administration a Romantic Gothic building in the style of the Austrian Lombardo-Veneto period. The adjacent former courthouse, remodelled around the same time, now contains additional municipal offices.