Palazzo, from 1579 to 1772, was the seat of the offices of the captains and commissioners, at the head of the Province of Florentine Romagna and the Civil Court and Criminal Court of first instance.
It is a harmonious and imposing quadrangular building of 40 meters per side, a classic example of Renaissance architecture, built in local stone, with elements in pietra serena and cotto. The façade and the loggias are decorated with numerous coats of arms, carved or painted during the succession of the numerous Commissioners. On the ground floor, with entrance from the external loggia, there are the Sala del Cancelliere and Sala del Tribunale.
The internal triportic cloister, with a double-entry loggia, Doric and Ionic, and the central well, from which a singular perspective view can be admired, is remarkably elegant. In the north wall there are some small windows, defended by solid bars, which give air and light to what were once prisons. Very original and Leonardesque invention, the spiral staircase built in sandstone blocks, which develops vertically, in a double helicoid on a single central pivot and leads to the dungeons.
The Palazzo is also home to the Museo dell’Uomo e dell’Ambiente, which is divided into 25 rooms, with an ethnographic and an archaeological section. The Museum is conceived as a journey through the millenary history of settlements in the valley of the river Montone, from prehistory to the present day, with particular attention to the area of Terra del Sole and Castrocaro Terme.
