PALAZZO THUN, Palazzo Thun

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: Palazzo Thun.

Amid the elegant noble buildings in characteristically Venetian style that can be admired in Trento, the austere facade of Palazzo Thun is particularly outstanding. Now home to the City Hall, for centuries – from the second half of the 15th century until 1873 – it was the private residence of the noble Thun family.

The earliest documents that mention the building refer to the grouping together, during the 15th century, of a number of medieval houses that had been purchased by the counts of Thun, a long-established noble family from the Val di Non.

Later, in the 16th century, Sigismondo Thun had some major improvement work carried out, which involved extending the building on both sides and giving it its present-day appearance. The division of the facade into four rows of windows also dates to this period; the original facade must have featured windows with pointed arches, as was indicated by the traces identified during the restoration work carried out in 1997. Another discovery made on this occasion was the mock ashlar pictorial decoration that today is a notable feature of the building; this distinctive technique imitates a kind of wall covering formed by overlaying stones....