Description
Piazza Broletto is the small medieval square between Piazza Sordello and Piazza delle Erbe, in the heart of Mantua: in the days of the commune it was the centre of public life, and its brick palaces still bear the marks.
The name comes from brolo, the walled courtyard where Lombard cities held their assemblies and administered justice; later it came to mean the podestà's palace. The square took shape around 1190, when Mantua grew beyond its first core.
The south side is dominated by the Palazzo del Podestà, built in 1227 by Laudarengo Martinengo from Brescia, the city's podestà. Altered several times after various fires, from 1462 it was rebuilt on the orders of Ludovico III Gonzaga: the blind battlements at the top date from that time.
In recent centuries it was also a prison; since December 2024 it has housed a museum devoted to Virgil. The poet is already on the façade: the Virgilio in cattedra is a 13th-century statue that the people of Mantua call "la vècia": the poet sits wearing a scholar's cap, in front of a lectern proclaiming him the most illustrious of poets.
On the corner rises the Torre del Broletto, with Casa Tortelli leaning against it. Next to it, the 14th-century Palazzo del Massaro preserves 15th-century frescoes from the school of Pisanello; the massaro was the official who managed the commune's property.
Linking the two palaces is the Arengario, a great arch topped by triple-arched windows: under the vault you can still see the iron rings used for rope torture.
In the middle of the square, now pedestrian, the Fontana dei Delfini dates from the 19th century and stands where the city's first artesian well was dug, to bring drinking water to the people of Mantua. This space was once called piazzetta dei Birri, and some still know it today as piazzetta della Guardiola.
The name comes from brolo, the walled courtyard where Lombard cities held their assemblies and administered justice; later it came to mean the podestà's palace. The square took shape around 1190, when Mantua grew beyond its first core.
The south side is dominated by the Palazzo del Podestà, built in 1227 by Laudarengo Martinengo from Brescia, the city's podestà. Altered several times after various fires, from 1462 it was rebuilt on the orders of Ludovico III Gonzaga: the blind battlements at the top date from that time.
In recent centuries it was also a prison; since December 2024 it has housed a museum devoted to Virgil. The poet is already on the façade: the Virgilio in cattedra is a 13th-century statue that the people of Mantua call "la vècia": the poet sits wearing a scholar's cap, in front of a lectern proclaiming him the most illustrious of poets.
On the corner rises the Torre del Broletto, with Casa Tortelli leaning against it. Next to it, the 14th-century Palazzo del Massaro preserves 15th-century frescoes from the school of Pisanello; the massaro was the official who managed the commune's property.
Linking the two palaces is the Arengario, a great arch topped by triple-arched windows: under the vault you can still see the iron rings used for rope torture.
In the middle of the square, now pedestrian, the Fontana dei Delfini dates from the 19th century and stands where the city's first artesian well was dug, to bring drinking water to the people of Mantua. This space was once called piazzetta dei Birri, and some still know it today as piazzetta della Guardiola.