Palazzo Vescovile

This is a palazzo of the bishop, built on a polygonal plan and rising two storeys above ground. Its masonry is part-rendered stone, the roof pitched and covered with traditional clay tiles, the floors a mix of wooden beams and shallow brick vaults carried on iron joists. A staircase of round-headed arches in the external courtyard leads up to the first floor. The building is in reasonable repair. One imagines it was once a place of business and hospitality as much as residence: the palace of a senior churchman in an Italian town was typically a working hub, housing offices, archives, and reception rooms alongside private apartments. This one, solid and unshowy, does not flaunt its authority. It simply occupies its ground with the quiet weight of centuries, its polygonal form perhaps a response to the constraints of a medieval street plan or simply a builder’s practical choice. Either way, it endures.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.