Segni Palace (Municipal office)

Building built in the late 1600s to close one of the sides of the Piazza del Mercato Nuovo, probably on the site of an old tavern of the Malatesta. In 1621 from the fief of Talamello, then possession of the Counts Malatesta, a jurisdiction of 9 families was spun off, granted as a dowry to his daughter Isabella on the occasion of the wedding with Alessandro Bentivoglio. This first group of houses, developed around the Old Market, was then sold with all the feudal rights to the Segni family of Bologna, who wanted to build a holiday palace, in keeping with the role of Lords of the small fiefdom. The seventeenth-century palace, but still in a mannerist setting, is characterized by an internal portico, once open to the gallery, which intersects the frescoed external portico. In 1926, on the ground floor of the Palazzone, the first bourgeois "coffee" was installed: the Caffè Grand'Italia, which still preserves the original furnishings and is a praiseworthy expression of Art Nouveau style. Since 1874 the Palace is the headquarters of the Municipal Offices.