Palazzo D'Accursio | Town Hall of Bologna

The Palazzo D’Accursio or Town Hall of Bologna located in the centre of Bologna in Piazza Maggiore is one of the most important in Bologna and has been the seat of the city's Municipal Authority since 1336.

It is made up of a series of buildings that, down the years, have been added on to an older nucleus acquired by the Municipality towards the end of the 1200s and which also included the home of Law Professor Accursio, which it is named after. Towards the mid-15th century, the palace was enriched with a clock in the d’Accursio tower and with a carousel with wooden figurines (Madonna with Child and Wise Men) that were removed in 1796. In Piazza Nettuno, there is the access to Sala Borsa, home to the Civic Multimedia Library since 2001.

A succession of loggia-halls and chapels can be visited inside the complex by climbing the 16th-century cordonata staircase attributed to Bramante and originally designed for the triumphal descent on horseback of the representatives of the city government: Sala d’Ercole, Sala del Consiglio Comunale, Sala Farnese, Cappella Farnese, Sala Rossa and Sala Urbana. The top floor of the palace is now home to the Municipal Art Collections (Collezioni Comunali d’Arte).