Palazzo d'Accursio

Palazzo d’Accursio in Bologna, Italy, is a municipal palace that grew from civic structures built by the medieval Bolognese commune beginning in the late thirteenth century and developed through medieval and Renaissance phases into a complex of government and papal offices. Its origins are tied to a property transaction in 1287 when the son of the jurist Accursio sold his father’s house to the city; from that nucleus the municipal authorities expanded the site and it soon became central to Bologna’s public life. Over centuries the palace housed the city’s highest magistracies, later accommodated papal representatives, and served continually as the city’s seat of government.

From the late thirteenth through the fourteenth century the commune enlarged and reshaped the original houses, preserving an existing medieval tower while converting surrounding buildings into a civic headquarters that also functioned as a public grain store. By 1336 the palace became the official residence of the Elder Consuls, the leading municipal magistracy, whose members were required to live on the premises. Political change followed: when the Visconti established their rule in 1350 the palace held the Visconti captain-lieutenant and the vicarius who led the college of Elder Consuls, and the complex acquired an additional tower. Roughly a decade later control passed to the Papal States; under papal administration Cardinal Anglico de Grimoard added a strong curtain wall and a surrounding ditch, giving the building a fortified civic profile.

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought further enlargement and new functions. After a major fire in 1425 cleared neighboring buildings, a papal legate commissioned a new wing beside the principal entrance on Piazza Maggiore. The Accursio tower was heightened in 1444, a public clock was fitted in 1451 and in 1498 a mechanism of moving figures was added to the clock, remaining in operation until 1796. In 1508, following the papal reconquest of the city, Pope Julius II ordered construction of a large corner tower, the Torrione, and a wall closing the palace to the northwest; thereafter the palace concentrated city administration, with the oldest portion housing the Senate and civic magistracies and the newer fifteenth‑century section providing apartments for papal legates.

During the sixteenth century the courtyard became the site of a botanical garden, established by the botanist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1568. The palace also acquired a chapel for the legate and a monumental entrance fronting the main square, together with a public fountain on the northern side completed in 1565. The Torrione served as the location for prisons and the criminal court that came to be known as the Tribunal of the Torrone.

The palace’s fortunes continued to reflect wider political shifts. During the Napoleonic occupation papal furnishings were removed and emblems of the papal regime were damaged or destroyed. In the nineteenth century the building underwent extensive restoration; the portico of the oldest section was reopened in the 1880s and the Sala Borsa was constructed in the former botanical courtyard in 1886. The building suffered damage from aerial bombing in the Second World War and required later repairs. On 21 November 1920 a violent confrontation at the palace during the inauguration of a newly elected mayor left ten people dead and many wounded after armed squadristi entered the square, shots were exchanged, and hand grenades were thrown from palace windows; the liberal councillor Giulio Giordani was shot inside the building, and the episode attracted national attention.

Throughout these changes Palazzo d’Accursio has continued as Bologna’s municipal seat, housing the municipal junta and the city council. From 2008 some municipal offices moved to another nearby palazzo, and until 2012 the building contained the Morandi Museum before that collection was relocated.