Palazzo Pretorio

On Piazza Garibaldi, Rovigo's former Palazzo Pretorio now houses the Chamber of Commerce. Built as the Venetian podestà's residence, it later served courts and the grain exchange; the 1928 Salone del Grano has a glass barrel vault above a mosaic floor.

Why it matters

The palace was built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century as the residence of the Venetian podestà and the centre of administrative and judicial government in the Polesine. Tribunals continued to use the complex under Napoleonic and Austrian rule. The Chamber of Commerce arrived in 1851 and remains based here. In 1928 engineers Pavarin and Silvestrin created the Salone del Grano, covering the former courtyard with a glass barrel vault.

What to notice

The palace occupies the north side of Piazza Garibaldi. Its façade retains arched elements from earlier building phases alongside features added in later renovations. The Salone del Grano has a glass vault supported by eight arches decorated with reliefs of seeds, fruit and vegetables. Its mosaic floor is patterned with octagons and squares, with two coats of arms at the centre, recalling the room's use as a grain exchange.

Context and history

The first palace's exact construction date is uncertain, with scholars placing it at the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century. The complex included courtyards, a well, council spaces and the podestà's quarters. In 1823 the hearing hall was demolished to make room for political prisons. The Chamber of Commerce's arrival in 1851 began a new phase; the grain market then occupied the courtyard, which Eugenio Piva adapted as a commodities exchange in 1858. Postal and savings-bank offices followed in 1888. A major 1920s renovation joined older columns and arches with the Salone del Grano.