Palazzo dei Priori, Volterra

Because it is the oldest communal palace in Tuscany — older than Siena's, older than Florence's — and because it tells you, on its own front, exactly who ended up governing Volterra.

Construction was begun on the orders of Ildebrando Pannocchieschi, count palatine of the Empire, and commissioned from master Riccardo da Como in 1208. It went slowly: the ground floor and part of the first were in use by about 1234, and the building was finished in 1257, which we know because an epigraph in leonine hexameters is set into the wall saying so.

Then look up at the façade. It is studded with glazed terracotta plaques bearing the arms of Florentine families — Bertini, Corbinelli, Del Benino, Della Stufa — because from the 15th century Volterra was governed by Florentine commissioners. A free commune's own town hall, decorated with the coats of arms of the men sent to run it.

It has also been a museum twice over: it held the Guarnacci collection from 1785 to 1877 and was the first home of the city picture gallery.

The friction is that it is still the town hall, and nothing publishes its hours.

Remember people are working inside. The registry, the mayor's office and the council chamber are in this building, and residents come here to do municipal business. Visitors drifting into office corridors looking for the Sala del Consiglio are in someone's workplace.

Ask before going up. No source publishes whether the council chamber or the tower can be seen on a given day, and the honest route is to ask at the desk rather than to try doors. The comune is at Piazza dei Priori 1 on 0588 86050.

Do not touch the glazed terracotta arms. The Florentine family plaques are glazed ceramic set into a stone façade at street level, unprotected, and they are the one element on the front with an applied surface to lose.

Buy the Volterra Card rather than skipping the small sites. This palace is one of the six it covers, along with the Pinacoteca e museo civico whose collection started in these rooms in the 19th century. Seeing both in sequence is the best use the Card has, and it funds the municipal sites that do not have queues.

Keep the square usable. Piazza dei Priori is Volterra's main square and the approach to both the town hall and the Duomo. It is small, and groups gathering in front of the entrance block the way in for people with appointments.

This is first and foremost a working town hall. The palace houses part of the municipal offices — the registry, the mayor's office and the council chamber — as well as temporary exhibitions. The Comune di Volterra's own address is Piazza dei Priori 1, switchboard 0588 86050.

What is covered, and what is not published

The Palazzo dei Priori is one of the six municipal sites on the 72-hour Volterra Card: €23,00 full, €18,00 reduced (6–25, university students, over-65s, Touring Club Italiano or FAI members), €32,00 family (6–18 with one or two adults, max five), €12,00 groups of at least ten, €6,00 school parties without a guided visit. Free for under-6s, residents, school-district students, disabled visitors and companions, accompanying teachers and group leaders, authorised guides, journalists and ICOM members.

No separate opening hours, no single-ticket price, and no statement of whether the Sala del Consiglio or the tower can be seen on a given day are published by the municipality. This page asserts none of them. Since the building is in daily administrative use and its exhibition programme changes, ask at the comune on the day — you are, conveniently, standing at its address.

The exterior is a complete visit on its own

Everything this page describes as architecture is on the façade and costs nothing: the string courses, the semicircular merlons, the glazed terracotta Florentine arms, the pentagonal tower — and, best of all, the outlines of the two blocked portals either side of the present entrance, which are the trace of a ground floor that used to be open.

Where it is

On Piazza dei Priori, right against the Duomo, in the middle of the historic centre and level with the square. It is five minutes from the Guarnacci, which the same Card covers — and which this palace itself housed from 1785 to 1877.

A weekday morning. That is the recommendation and the reasoning is unusual: this building is a working town hall, so it is most likely to be open and staffed during ordinary office hours on a working day — the opposite of the advice for a museum.

For the façade, which is the reliable half of the visit, morning or late afternoon light is better. The glazed terracotta arms are the detail that rewards it: low, raking sun catches the glaze and makes the plaques read against the plain stone, where flat midday light loses them entirely.

Spring and autumn are the best seasons in Volterra generally — late April to May and late September to October.

July and August make no difference to this building beyond the heat in the square; it is level and central in any weather.

November to March is quiet, and a low winter sun across a plain stone façade with rounded merlons is genuinely the best that front looks. Remember that the Guarnacci closes on Tuesdays in that season, so a Tuesday in winter is a good day to concentrate on the square and this palace instead.