Description
Palazzo Moroni is Padua's city hall: a group of buildings from different periods between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, right across from Palazzo Bo. The name comes from the architect Andrea Moroni, who from 1539 rebuilt the old Palazzo del Podestà.
The highlight is the hanging courtyard on the second floor, square in plan, with a marble loggia and a 15th-century wellhead. On the white marble façades stand out the statue of Justice by Tiziano Minio (1552) and the obelisk of the podestà Nicolò da Ponte.
The complex also includes the 13th-century Torre degli Anziani and the Volto della Corda, the overhead passage from the early 14th century named after the rope torture carried out nearby.
In the days of the commune, the podestà had to be an outsider: he brought judges and aides with him, also from elsewhere, and no one in his circle could accept gifts from the people of Padua, not even an invitation to lunch.
The highlight is the hanging courtyard on the second floor, square in plan, with a marble loggia and a 15th-century wellhead. On the white marble façades stand out the statue of Justice by Tiziano Minio (1552) and the obelisk of the podestà Nicolò da Ponte.
The complex also includes the 13th-century Torre degli Anziani and the Volto della Corda, the overhead passage from the early 14th century named after the rope torture carried out nearby.
In the days of the commune, the podestà had to be an outsider: he brought judges and aides with him, also from elsewhere, and no one in his circle could accept gifts from the people of Padua, not even an invitation to lunch.