Discover Palazzo Comunale di Alba

The Palazzo Comunale di Alba is a historic building and the municipal seat of the city of Alba, in Piedmont. It stands on piazza Risorgimento, in the historic centre — the square the record calls the historic fulcrum of the city.

The building dates to the 14th century. In the course of the 19th century it underwent important intervention by the architect Giorgio Busca, work which diminished its medieval character.

Its interest to a visitor is inside rather than outside. On the walls of the main staircase are frescoes brought from the church of San Domenico, among which stand out a Pietà of the late 14th century and an Adoration of the Magi.

In the council chamber are important paintings: a panel of the Virgin with Child by Macrino d'Alba, of 1501; an altarpiece with the Madonna and Child between saints Joseph and Anne; and the Concerto, attributed to Mattia Preti.

The honest description of this building is that its date and its appearance disagree, and the record explains why.

It is a 14th-century palazzo. But the 19th-century works by Giorgio Busca are recorded as having diminished its medieval character — so what stands on the square today is a medieval municipal building edited by a 19th-century architect with a different idea of how a town hall should look.

That makes it a useful companion to the cathedral opposite, which Busca also worked on. Between 1867 and 1872 he directed the remodelling there to Edoardo Arborio Mella's design. One architect, one generation, both sides of piazza Risorgimento.

The interior retains what the exterior lost: a main staircase of civic scale, hung with fresco, and a council chamber used as a picture room.

Little is recorded of the original construction beyond its century, and nothing is claimed here that the record does not carry.

The 14th-century fabric is the base. Alba's towers were going up in the same century, so this is a municipal building raised while the town was still building in the medieval manner.

The 19th-century rework is the decisive campaign, and it is characterised in the record by its effect rather than its method: Giorgio Busca's intervention reduced the medieval character of the building.

The pictures were brought in. The staircase frescoes are not part of the building's own decoration — they come from the church of San Domenico. Moving fresco is a deliberate act of salvage, and it is why a late-Trecento Pietà is on a civic stair rather than in a chapel.

A claim this page does not make: that the palazzo stands on earlier Roman buildings. The encyclopedia says so and simultaneously flags the sentence as unsourced, so it is left out.

Can I go inside? It is a working town hall, not a museum, and no visiting hours are published. The frescoes are on the main staircase and the panels in the council chamber, so it depends on the day and on municipal business.

How old is it? It dates to the 14th century, though a 19th-century intervention by Giorgio Busca is recorded as having diminished its medieval character.

Is it true it stands on Roman buildings? That is said, but the encyclopedia marks its own sentence as unsourced, so this page does not assert it.

What are the paintings? On the staircase, frescoes from the church of San Domenico including a late-14th-century Pietà and an Adoration of the Magi. In the council chamber, a Virgin and Child by Macrino d'Alba, 1501, a Madonna and Child between saints Joseph and Anne, and a Concerto attributed to Mattia Preti.

Who was Macrino d'Alba? A painter who takes his name from this town; the council chamber panel is dated 1501.

Is the Mattia Preti certain? No — the record gives the Concerto as attributed to him.