The town hall of Nizza Monferrato was built in 1353 and has never changed job since: it has housed the administrations of this territory for more than six and a half centuries, through alterations in every century that followed.
What to see
On Piazza Martiri di Alessandria the building presents itself in two distinct pieces: a low main block of two floors, and beside it a tower that people in Nizza call el Campanon.
Visiting
The facades are of brick, with four windows per floor closed at the top by an arched lunette. Below runs a very wide internal portico, marked by four arches on four thick pillars, which is the real public space of the building. On the first floor the two central windows are joined by an austere wrought-iron balcony, and between them sits the city's coat of arms modelled in clay.
Our editors' tip
The detail to look for is exactly that clay coat of arms between the two central windows: a humble material, shaped by hand, on a building that is otherwise all brick, iron and stone.