VII Aprile Palace in Marsala
The Palazzo VII Aprile in Marsala is located in the heart of the historic center of the city, on the site where the "Loggia" of the Pisans and the Genoese stood in medieval times, that is a building with a portico where the market was held and exchange was exercised. Even today the building and the area in front are called Loggia.
The first construction of the building, known as Palazzo dei Giurati, which consisted only of the ground floor, dates back to 1576, based on a design by Giuseppe Vinci, and was intended to host the meetings of the Senate. At the end of the sixteenth century, an upper floor was built, on which the council chamber opened, and in the seventeenth century it was restored and embellished. After 1860 the name "Loggia" of the building was changed to "VII Aprile" in memory of a popular uprising in Marsala against the Bourbon government on 7 April 1860, a few days before the landing of the Thousand.
The façade, open to a double loggia, is characterized by serliane, arched openings that rest on columns flanked by two narrow rectangular open spaces. It recalls the façade of the Seminary of the Clerics of Mazara and that of the Palazzo Ducezio in Noto. The central part, considerably slender compared to the other orders of the structure, rises like a tower housing a clock and, at the top, a quadrangular compartment open with arches, probably inserted later.
Municipal Council meetings are held today in the building.
