Il concorso e la costruzione del palazzo municipale di Padova. Conservazione delle memorie e trasformazioni urbane (1919-1930)

The current Town Hall of the city of Padua is the result of an articulated stratification of offices and buildings that arose in the communal age and gradually adapted to the administrative uses that have followed in different time. Important changes were also introduced during the Renaissance in connection with the Venetian domination. However, the phase of most intense evolution dates back to the end of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries and appears as a significant case-study for understanding the dynamics that link architectural language choices and political and cultural aspirations in the early twentieth century. In 1919 a public competition was launched which provided for the construction of a new wing integrated with the medieval and Renaissance pre-existing structures to be restored and arranged. The paper intends to illustrate the dynamics that the construction of the headquarters provoked, both in terms of actual construction and in relation to the discussions aroused by the stylistic choices.