Palazzo di Giustizia Historical Timeline

Origins

Soave passed to Venice in 1405, and with the Republic came a civil administration that the Scaligeri frontier post had never needed.

Turning points

The palace was built in the fifteenth century to house the town's justice and civic functions -- a deliberate architectural statement that Soave was now a Venetian community rather than a garrison.

Influential people

Its builders were the local notable families who ran the town on Venice's behalf, and the style they chose was straightforwardly the style of the capital.

Cultural evolution

The facade carried frescoes, as most palaces of this date did in the Veneto. What remains of them is fragmentary; the practice was near-universal and the survival rate is very low.

Present-day significance

The building is still in use and still on the town's main street, and it is the clearest surviving evidence in Soave of the four centuries the town spent as part of the Republic.