Palazzo
del Podestà

Initially, the Municipality of Colle Val d’Elsa (12th century) was administered by three consuls, each representing the three urban structures (Borgo, Castello and Piano). After a while, however, the figure of the Podestà took over, as a superior authority to the consuls who in principle did not have a fixed seat. At the dawn of the fourteenth century, however, the need arose for a municipal seat where the Podestà could also reside. Thus in 1306 the tower-house of the Guidotti family, located in Piazza Duomo, was purchased by the Municipality together with other buildings and adjacent spaces. From that moment on it became the seat of the Municipality, with tower, bell and residence of the Podestà. In the following centuries, the Palace maintained the seat of the judiciary until the post-unification era, when the district court and the district prisons, active until the Fascist period, were also transferred. The building has kept all its best features, typical of the podestà’s seats, in fact on the façade one can still clearly distinguish the different coats of arms of the podestà, vicars and commissioners who have succeeded one another over time. The interior of the building has frescoed walls and ceilings, among which a Madonna and saints and an Annunciation by Giovanni Maria Tolosani, dating back to the first half of the 16th century, stand out. In addition, various heraldic-themed decorations are visible that frame the splendid collection of the Archaeological Museum. On the sides of the building there are two turreted structures. The first on the left is the ancient tower of the Municipality, today cut after a collapse in the seventeenth century, the second on the right is the bell tower of the Cathedral (about 32 meters), built in 1632 by the architect Bernardino Renieri on the pre-existing bell tower, dating back to to 1334.