Palazzo Re Enzo and Palazzo del Podesta

Palazzo Re Enzo and Palazzo del Podesta form the north side of Piazza Maggiore and Piazza del Nettuno in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, and together make up the heart of the city's medieval civic complex. The Palazzo del Podesta was begun in 1200 as the seat of the podesta, the chief magistrate of the commune, and was rebuilt several times, taking its present arcaded form in the 15th century with a Renaissance facade by Aristotele Fioravanti and a bell tower, the Torre dell'Arengo, rising above. The Palazzo Re Enzo was added from 1244 as an extension, to serve as a new public building for the council. Its name comes from Enzo, king of Sardinia and son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who was captured by Bolognese forces at the Battle of Fossalta in 1249. He was kept in the palace in honourable detention until his death in 1272, despite repeated ransom offers, and local tradition tells of the legend of a failed escape in a barrel. Architecturally, the Re Enzo is a block of brick and stone with battlements, large pointed windows and an interior hall used for council meetings. Below the Podesta, the Voltone del Podesta is a vaulted passage where, thanks to the acoustics, a whisper into one corner can be heard on the opposite side, and visitors often test this. Over the centuries the buildings were adapted to many uses, including as a prison, a theatre and a library. In the 20th century, restoration campaigns, particularly under Alfonso Rubbiani in the early 1900s, repaired medieval features, though some of the work is considered a romantic reconstruction. Today the palaces are used for exhibitions, events and cultural programmes, so interiors are not always open. The exterior and the Voltone can be seen at any time, free of charge, and are a good starting point for understanding the communal architecture of the city.