Palazzo della Ragione, Milan

Palazzo della Ragione in Milan, Italy, is a medieval municipal palace begun in 1228 by the city’s communal authorities and completed in stages in the early 1230s, combining 13th-century civic architecture with later Gothic and Neoclassical alterations. From its earliest years it served as one of Milan’s principal seats of government and public assembly, hosting courts, meetings and civic ceremonies, and it once sheltered the ceremonial war chariot known as the Carroccio. The building’s long use at the heart of Milanese public life makes it an important witness to the city’s communal and later regional administration.

Work started in 1228 at the direction of the podestà Aliprando Faba, who ordered a simple open portico to serve for assemblies, arbitrations and public ordinances. A few years later, in 1233, the podestà Oldrado da Tresseno had an upper floor inserted with a large hall intended for the most significant meetings. From the mid 13th century the structure functioned under the name Broletto Nuovo, a title it kept from 1251 until 1786.

Milan maintained several civic halls through the centuries. The older Broletto, adjacent to the archbishop’s palace and the Cathedral, served as the municipal seat until 1251 before its later conversion into the Royal Palace. From 1786 the municipal seat moved to a newer broletto on the former Corsia di San Marcellino (today Via Broletto) and remained there until, in 1861, municipal offices were transferred to Palazzo Marino.

The palace’s exterior and interior remained largely the same until the late 18th century, when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria ordered the construction of an additional upper storey in the early 1770s, a date given variously as 1773 or between 1770 and 1771. That campaign transformed the upper silhouette into a Neoclassical form, renewed interior spaces and adapted the building to house the notarial archives and the regional administrative body known as the Congregation of the State.

During the 19th century further changes altered the ground level and uses of the building. In 1854 a project closed the ground-floor arcade with glazing mounted on cast-iron supports and later modified the ceiling with sail-shaped vaults. Between 1866 and 1870 the palace accommodated the first seat of the Banca Popolare di Milano. In the early 20th century, between 1905 and 1907, the large portico was reopened and a revival of interest in medieval architecture led to removal of later plaster from the older masonry and reopening of former windows, while the 18th-century upper addition was left in a state of decay though not taken down because interior rooms remained in use.

In the 1970s the notarial archive was moved elsewhere and structural concerns prompted an extensive consolidation effort. In 1978 an architect was commissioned to stabilize the building and to reorganize its systems, carrying out structural reinforcement, installing heating and thermal equipment, replacing flooring and inserting a modern safety staircase, the latter receiving criticism for not imitating historical forms.