Palazzo della Ragione

Palazzo della Ragione stands in Verona between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori, beside the ancient Roman forum. Its brick and soft-stone walls surround a courtyard, while the Torre dei Lamberti rises alongside it. The interior combines Romanesque windows, vaulted cornices, and a nineteenth-century neoclassical façade.

Construction began in 1193 after an earthquake, creating one of Italy’s earliest public palaces. Verona’s authorities used the building for assemblies, salt storage, silk trading, and a pawnshop. Under the Scaliger family, judicial offices and the College of Notaries joined the city’s civic functions. A fire in 1541 damaged the judges’ hall, prompting another restoration and further changes.

The courtyard later became a grain market known as the Old Market. The building also served as a courthouse, prison, school, and centre for judicial administration before restoration in the early 2000s. Since 2007, the Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art has occupied its rooms, placing modern works within Verona’s layered civic history.