Podesteria Building

This building still bears significant traces on its main façade of the function it served from 1384 onwards and the structure it must have had when it was built. Initially smaller in size than its current form, the palace was constructed on pre-existing buildings and was located along the ancient Via Maior Casentinese, at the intersection with Borgo di Mezzo.

The inscriptions on the façade, although deteriorated and almost illegible due to time, date back to the years immediately following the definitive conquest of Arezzo and its territory by the Florentine Republic (1384). At that time, even Subbiano, which had until then been part of the Arezzo territory, received a new arrangement from the Florentines. A Florentine citizen was sent to represent Florentine sovereignty, with the task of administering civil justice and, for minor offenses, criminal justice, overseeing the activities of local deliberative bodies, particularly regarding tax imposition and payment, and the administration of Podesteria revenues.

The territorial scope of the Podesteria coincided with the extension of the current municipalities of Subbiano and Capolona. This palace served as the seat of the Florentine podestà for centuries, presumably also hosting local governing bodies, over which the podestà had supervisory and control duties. The coats of arms still visible on the façade belong to some of the Florentine families who held the role of podestà here. On the ground floor of the palace, one can glimpse arches, now blocked, revealing the presence of an ancient loggia.

Also known as the Palazzo Pretorio, precisely because justice was administered here, this building was restored and expanded several times; it remained the seat of the podestà until 1838. When the office of podestà was definitively abolished, the top organs of local administration had already moved to the current Townhall.