Municipal Palace

The Municipal Palace was the old seat of Certaldo's Vicariate and it was probably also the residence of the counts Alberti, the old owners of the citadel.

The palace was made in the 15^th century on the Alberti's castle. We now know that the fortress was initially built around the 12^th century, incorporating the older residences of the Alberti, some planted parts have been found. After the towers were knocked down in 1184 when the Alberti swore allegiance to Florence, only the donjon, the central tower, has been preserved from the original structure. Since it became the sear of Certaldo's Vicariate in 1415, the palace's facade had the coat of arms of all the vicars represented on the red bricks. Their banners were made on stone or glazed earthenware in the shop of the Della Robbia. In 1484 the clock was put on the small tower to the right of the palace, which was restored in 1893. The façade was originally made up by six arches, two of which were destroyed at an unspecified time between 1800 and 1850.
Inside the palace you can enter the several rooms directly from the hall. On the left there is the Knight's room, while on the opposite side there is the Hearing Room and the Civil Prison, the two essential structures for the Vicars to administer justice in Valdelsa. On the right you can enter the Little Chapel decorated with frescoes and embellished with several coat of arms, from where you can get to the inside courtyard. From the inside courtyard you can reach the private apartments of the Vicar and the Tower that dominated over the country offering the visitors a view on the landscape.
The Vicar's apartments are embellished with works of Pier Francesco Fiorentino and Benozzo Gozzoli. The former painted the "Madonna with Child on the throne" in 1480. Even if the fresco is damaged in the central part, it allows to see the typical strokes of the renaissance painting mainly in the decorations of the frame. The latter frescoed some parts of the palace, but he also worked in other places in Certaldo, as in the Tabernacle of the Giustiziati, whose paintings are now preserved in the church of St. Iacopo and Filippo.
Only one part of the old prisons is open to the public. You can get there from the right of the hall, by going through a very narrow and low door. You can thus see the many carvings made by the prisoners who wrote their names or the days before their release.