Palazzo San Giorgio, seat of the Municipality of Reggio Calabria, was rebuilt to a design by the Palermo architect Ernesto Basile after the previous town hall was destroyed by the devastating earthquake that struck the Strait of Messina in 1908.
What to see
Built by the Rome-based firm G. Vianini and completed in 1921, the palace was officially inaugurated on 27 April 1922 in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III, who came especially to Reggio aboard a destroyer, in a city decked with flags and flowers for the occasion; from 1970 to 2000, while Palazzo Campanella was being completed, it also housed the offices and assembly hall of the Regional Council of Calabria. Built in the Liberty style, the building rises over two floors around an almost square plan, with the main façade on piazza Italia marked by round arches at ground level and pilasters, coats of arms and friezes on the first floor, and a central tower-like block topped by a clock and a bell.
On the first floor, among richly decorated rooms such as the Sala dei Lampadari and the Sala del Consiglio, the palace long held part of the Civic Picture Gallery of Reggio Calabria, a collection of two hundred and fifty paintings by artists active between the first half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, both Calabrian and otherwise, many linked to the Neapolitan school and to late-century Verismo.
Visiting
The palace, an institutional seat, can be viewed from outside at any time, while access to the interiors depends on the hours and activities of the municipal offices.
Our editors' tip
Stop in piazza Italia to look at the central tower-like block: according to contemporary accounts, it was there that the crowd of Reggio residents waited for King Victor Emmanuel III to arrive on the day of the inauguration, in a city literally covered in flags.
