The Palazzo dei Priori is located at the corner between Piazza IV Novembre and Corso Vannucci in Perugia.
Seat of the highest political authority of the city, it was decorated over the years by the best artists.
The first building core, dating back to the 1270s, consisted of. From the last decade of the 13th century, around a private architectural complex developed the “palatium novum populi”, whose construction was carried out in successive phases, resulting in an irregular architectural layout, rich in asymmetries and movement.
The first core of the palace, built between 1293 and 1297, consists of the three triforas on the second floor and the portal on the square side, as well as ten triforas overlooking Corso Vannucci. During an initial expansion (1333-1337), two triforas were added on the square facade on either side of the portal and the staircase (originally not fan-shaped) by Ambrogio Maitani (the semicircular staircase dates back to 1902). Subsequently, the right volume was built incorporating the pre-existing church of San Severo di Piazza, preceded by an arcade portico with irregular arches.
In 1353 the palace reached the current Via dei Priori. In the following century, the expansion continued which, crossing Via dei Priori with an arch, also incorporated a medieval tower. A further extension was carried out between 1429 and 1443.
Climbing the staircase of the square facade, passing through the ogival portal surmounted by two copies of the 13th-century bronze Griffin and Lion, symbols of the city (the originals are inside the Palace) you enter the Hall of the Notaries. Originally the hall of popular assemblies, the rectangular room, with a vault supported by eight Romanesque arches, is entirely decorated with frescoes depicting legends, fables, and biblical stories dating to the last decade of the 13th century, perhaps the work of the Master of Farneto and the Expressionist Master of Santa Chiara, as well as coats of arms of podestà and captains of the people who succeeded each other in the city’s government.
The facade on the Corso features, in addition to the series of triforas and quadriforas that lighten the horizontal sense of the masonry mass, a rich rounded portal dating back to the 14th century, flanked by pillars supported by lions: on the left pillar the allegories of Magnanimity, Fertility, and Pride are depicted. On the right pillar are Greed, Abundance, and Humility. The pillars are surmounted by two griffins subduing calves, symbols of the Butchers’ guild that commissioned the work, while in the archway are scenes of human life. In the lunette, copies (originals in the National Gallery of Umbria) of statues representing Saint Louis of Toulouse, Saint Lawrence, and Saint Herculanus.
On the first floor of the Palace, seat of the municipal administration, are various murals, among which noteworthy are those by Bernardino Pinturicchio in the Council Hall. On the third floor, home to the National Gallery of Umbria, is the Priori Chapel, frescoed by Benedetto Bonfigli with Stories of the Life of Saint Louis of Toulouse and Saint Herculanus (1454-1480).
In the same building, along Corso Vannucci, are also the Collegio del Cambio, seat of the money changers’ guild, which preserves precious frescoes created between 1498 and 1500 by Pietro Vannucci called Il Perugino, one of the highest examples of Italian Renaissance art, and the Collegio della Mercanzia, that is, the merchants’ guild, with an elegant walnut and poplar carved wood paneling probably crafted by foreign masters.
Information on Palazzo dei Priori
Corso Vannucci, 16
06121 Perugia (Perugia)
Source: MIBACT
