Palazzo della Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme

The prince-bishops of Trento governed the Fiemme valley from this Cavalese palace under rights recorded in 1111. Today it houses the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme and its museum, with frescoed apartments, a tribunal hall and former prison cells.

Why it matters

The palace began as a temporary residence for the prince-bishop of Trento's vicar, who came to administer justice under the patti gebardini of 14 July 1111. From the early fourteenth century the vicar's presence became permanent, and the building served as the valley's courtroom and administrative hub through bishopric, Bavarian and Austrian rule. The Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme continues to operate from the palace.

What to notice

The Sala dell'attesa, the waiting room of the vicar's apartment, has imitation red-and-gold damask and a frieze of putti, vine shoots and greyhounds. A Swiss stone-pine staircase leads toward the audience hall. The vicar's bedroom retains original wood panelling, with 1539 carved into the door architrave; its coffered ceiling bears musical angels, laurel crowns and the emblem VNITAS. The Salone Clesiano, built between 1537 and 1539, served as a tribunal for the vicar and the Council of Jurors of Fiemme. Its frieze contains fourteen panels with Clesian emblems. The former prisons, in use from the late fifteenth century, preserve graffiti left by detainees.

Context and history

The regional culture portal dates the building to the end of the thirteenth century, when it housed the episcopal captains who travelled into the valley on judicial rounds. During the fifteenth century the prince-bishops, who also used it as a summer residence, expanded and beautified the complex, and the great Clesian campaigns of 1537–1539 gave the palace its finest rooms. When Napoleonic invasion ended the prince-bishopric, the incoming Bavarian administration converted it into the District Court of Fiemme, Fassa and Primiero, and its nineteenth-century prison cells stayed in service until the end of that century. In 1850 the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme bought the building, which then doubled as a salt warehouse while the prison function continued. A seven-year restoration completed in 2012 returned the complex to use as the valley museum and picture gallery.