Palazzo del Governo

The beautiful Government Palace, one of the pearls of Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia, was designed by the Viennese architect Emil Artman and built between 1901 and 1905 on the site of the pre-existing, and much more modest, seat of the "lieutenant", then Palast der k.k. Statthalterei. This work was part of a project to embellish the square, which had already become the vital centre of the city. The main characteristic of the beautiful façade is the large covered balcony, above the high central portico, and refined by the covering of mosaics in Murano glass in the upper part (where you can recognize drawings, allegorical heads and medallions with the Savoy cross) and the covering in white stone in the lower part. At the time of its construction, the building overlooked the garden that occupied, until 1920, half of the piazza, then called Piazza Grande, between Via dell'Orologio and the sea.