Palazzo dei Rettori Site Features

The facade is a clear piece of early Venetian Renaissance design: an arcaded loggia along the ground floor, and above it a regular sequence of round-arched windows separated by pilasters.

The proportions are Venetian rather than Florentine -- lighter, flatter, more concerned with surface pattern than with mass -- which is what distinguishes Venetian Renaissance building from the Tuscan version.

The loggia is not decorative: it was the public face of the administration, the sheltered space where business with the government was done.

The clock tower at one end is a later addition and sits slightly awkwardly with the rest, which is usually how such things happen.

The palace faces the cathedral across Piazza del Duomo, so church and state confront each other on the same square -- the standard arrangement in a Venetian mainland city.

The loggia

The arcaded ground floor, and the building's best feature -- open to the square as it always was.

The window range

A regular sequence of round-arched openings above the loggia, in the Venetian Renaissance manner.

The clock tower

A later addition, and the element that gives the facade its lopsided character.

Piazza del Duomo

The palace, the cathedral and its Juvarra bell tower all face the same square, which makes this the obvious place to start in Belluno.