Constructed between 1332 and 1349 from a design by Angelo da Orvieto or local architect Matteo Gattapone, the Palazzo dei Consoli required a municipal investment of 16,336 Ravenna Lire. Inspired by the lost Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo in Arezzo, it stands as a monumental feat of Gothic civic architecture. Built on a rectangular plan against the hillside, the structure supports the suspended terrace of Piazza Grande, covering the lower levels of the complex. From the southern street level to the tip of its square bell tower, the building reaches a height of 60 meters.
What to see
The facade is constructed from white limestone, altered in color by the centuries. Its upper section features six round-arched windows arranged in pairs and separated by pilasters, capped by merlons supported by a frieze of ogival arches. The ground floor displays massive mullioned windows flanking a central Gothic portal. The entrance is accessed via a fan-shaped hemi-circle of stone stairs leading to a stone bridge staircase; its arch pillars display Gubbio's heraldic symbol of four mountains topped by an iron lily. The portal's lunette retains a 16th-century fresco, while outside hangs an iron cage historically used for the public humiliation of criminals.
Inside, the massive barrel-vaulted Arengo hall once hosted citizen meetings and was the first building of its era to feature indoor plumbing for decorative fountains. Today, this space operates as a Lapidary, exhibiting a decorated Roman marble sarcophagus and ancient inscriptions, including one honoring the local magistrate Gneo Satrio Rufo. The former chapel preserves the museum's prized possession: the bronze Iguvine Tablets, inscribed in an ancient Umbrian language predating Latin. The pinacoteca section holds a 14th-century painted crucifix by the Master of the Gubbio Cross, a gonfalone by Sinibaldo Ibi, Francesco Signorelli's 1527 canvas of the Immaculate Conception, and a 1350 fresco of the Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Ubaldo, attributed to Guiduccio Palmerucci and Mello da Gubbio.
Visiting
Since 1909, the palace has operated as the civic museum, displaying archaeological artifacts, numismatics, local maiolica ceramics, and collections covering Oriental art and the Italian Risorgimento. The bell tower, flanked by a narrow loggia facing the valley, houses the famed Campanone, cast by Giovanni Battista Donati on October 30, 1769, and hoisted into place on March 20, 1770. Alongside a middle bell from 1678 and a small bell from 1289—which predates the palace itself—it forms the "voice of Gubbio." Since 1380, generations of bell ringers, officially recognized as a company in 1981, have performed complex ringing sequences known as Sonate to mark the municipal calendar.
Our editors' tip
Take a moment to examine the iron lily and the four-mountain symbol carved into the pillars at the base of the entrance arch; this specific heraldic crest of Gubbio mirrors the one found on the fountain outside the Palazzo del Bargello.