Guida pratica

The Palazzo dell'Arengo, the ancient 'Palatium comunis', was a symbol of freedom and the authority of the city government. The Council of the Rimini People met here in the late Middle Ages.

It is a majestic Romanesque-Gothic building surmounted by battlements.

The original construction is today profoundly altered by the renovations carried out between the 16th and 17th centuries as well as at the beginning of the 20th.

The solemn loggia, theater of so much urban life and a place dedicated to the administration of justice, represents the most authentic part of the building built in 1204 by the will of Modio dei Carbonesi, mayor of Rimini, as evidenced by the epigraph still visible in one of the pillars. The architectural typology of the Rimini palace reflects models of the Po Valley: a large loggia set on mighty colonnades supporting extended pointed arches is the characterizing element of the ground floor; the immense hall on the first floor, sober and at the same time solemn in its proportions, is enhanced by the majestic trussed ceiling and moved by the succession of large multi-lancet windows; the crowning presented the typical "dovetail" battlements; to reaffirm political supremacy, the high bell tower also used as a prison.

Today the Palazzo dell'Arengo together with the adjacent Palazzo del Podestà has undergone architectural enhancement to bring to light the original valuable elements, such as the sequence of Palladian trusses, the large multi-lancet windows, the materials, together with technical modernization and systems, in order to accommodate the new Museum of Contemporary Art in the City - Palazzi dell'Arte Rimini - with works that belong to the San Patrignano Foundation Collection, a collection of donations from collectors, gallery owners and artists, to support of the Community's operations.