Broletto di Como - Como (CO), Italia
N 45° 48.713 E 009° 04.985
32T E 506455 N 5073150
The Broletto (Lombard for "town house" or "town hall") called building in the northern Italian city of Como is the most important medieval secular building in the city.
Waymark Code: WM13FRD
Location: Lombardia, Italy
Date Posted: 12/03/2020
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The building rises immediately to the northwest of the cathedral facade; the representative ensemble of both buildings forms an obvious, but ultimately almost unique testimony to the close connection between spiritual and secular power in a city of the European Middle Ages.
As can be seen from an inscription plaque below the left window, the building was built in 1215 at the instigation of the mayor (podestà) Bonardo da Codazzo. Since Como is located at the end of Lake Como and there is no drain here, the area used to be swampy and often flooded. This caused the general level of the city - after the construction of the Broletto - to be raised by a good one meter. This results in a lower ground floor than street level, which - comparable to a Roman basilica - could be used for market purposes, but also on the occasion of public court cases. The building was originally a yoke longer, but had to be shortened during the time of the new Gothic cathedral building, which took place on the new street level - correspondingly cut stones can be seen in the northeast wall. The church window hidden behind it is so richly decorated that it cannot be ruled out that the room once had been completely demolished.
Back view
The arcade hall was filled to the new street level, so that the bases of the columns disappeared underneath. It was not until 1970 that the original floor was exposed again and the pillars regained their former proportions and elegance. While the outer rows of columns are ornately decorated (13th century), the inner columns were rather simply renewed after a fire (15th century). Their higher-lying bases indicate the now elevated street level. The balcony framed by a balustrade - formerly probably located in the middle of the building - seems to be a later addition; From there, edicts and notices were communicated to the townspeople and possibly important guests of the town were also presented. In the 16th or 17th century, the building received another loggia, which was removed again at the beginning of the 20th century. The completely undivided tower in the north-west corner of the building is much more simply designed, but there are no indications of an earlier or later date from this.
The long sides of the ground floor, which is divided into two parts by an almost continuous base zone with a resting central arcade, are opened by brick arcades. The octagonal columns consist of different colored layers of sandstone and close in mighty marble capitals on which broad and barely noticeably pointed arcades rest. The base zone and the stone steps in the rear part of the ground floor functioned as bench seats. The further use of polychrome stones in the arch spandrels of the ground floor, which ends with an arched frieze resting on small profiled consoles, is extremely attractive. The upper floor, equipped on both sides with three or four arched windows covered with archivolts, of which the left one clearly stands out through the use of double columns and a front-facing gable, closes off below the eaves in a further round arch frieze with a toothed frieze above.
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