Palazzo della Mercanzia (Merchants' Palace), Bologna

The Merchants’ Palace has presided over Merchants’ Square, the centre of Bologna’s commercial life since the Middle Ages, since construction began in 1384. Built over earlier customs offices, it housed the merchants’ court, where trade regulations were enforced and commercial disputes settled. Today, it remains closely connected with the city’s economy as the headquarters of the Bologna Chamber of Commerce.

Its crenellated red-brick façade is one of Bologna’s finest examples of Gothic civic architecture. A raised open gallery rests on pointed arches and clustered columns with elaborately carved capitals. Above are paired windows and a small balcony of Istrian stone, from which court decisions were once announced. Sculptures representing Justice and protective saints reflect the authority once exercised here over an economy based largely on gold, textiles, silk, and hemp.

The palace also safeguards official records of Bologna’s culinary traditions. These include recipes for Bolognese meat sauce, stuffed pasta parcels, and Bologna sausage, as well as a golden model showing the official width of the city’s traditional ribbon pasta.

Get inside through the main portal and climb the grand staircase to admire the walls painted with over 2000 historical coats of arms belonging to the judges who served in the mercantile court. Once you get to the top of these stairs on the second floor, you'll be met by the Council Hall, an ornate ceremonial chamber featuring metaphorical frescoes of Justice and Equity along with a grand glass chandelier made from glass produced on the Venetian island of Murano.

Before leaving the premises of the palace, make sure you explore the main first-floor corridor, past rooms lined with silk-covered walls, and portraits of former Chamber of Commerce presidents. Eventually, you can step through the meeting room into a quiet, secluded internal courtyard tucked inside the palace core.