Municipal Library (former Town Hall)

For centuries it was the building of power. Today it hosts Terni’s Municipal Library, a venue for cultural events as well as for the collection and consultation of books and multimedia support.

The building was constructed in the early 14th century on the main square of the city, the Platea Columnarum, later Piazza Maggiore (now Piazza della Repubblica). The meeting place, the agora, where the frumentaria column stands, is still today the focal point of the city's political-administrative life. The Palazzo, through the plaques on its façade and inside, recounts a large part of the city's history starting from its use as a town hall. They range from the celebration of King Vittorio Emanuele to that of Garibaldi; to the memory of illustrious men, to painful or triumphant events that involved the city.

In 1293, the Municipality of Terni built the structure it had decided to give the Governor, using the structures of pre-existing houses purchased for this purpose. A typical 14th century building with mighty structures, of which only a few remain in the former XX September hall, today the "Literary Café" of the Library.

There is not much evidence of the original structure, nor is there a floor plan giving an indication of what it looked like.

This is largely due to the fact that, over the centuries, the Governor’s building had undergone a series of remodelling and restoration work that had begun as early as the 15th century and were dictated by the need to adapt it to the changing needs of the public role of the tenant.
After the Governor, it hosted the mayor and subsequently for a long time the representatives of papal power. Bishops, legates and papal administrators used it for all the needs typical of a decentralised seat of government. Its basement also housed a prison. A building - as the historian Francesco Angeloni described it in the 17th century – “of double flats with antique and modern paintings and a lot of arms of Pontiffs, cardinals and governors, worked in fresco and stucco”. There "reside the prelates who take care of the city for the Holy Church; including the prisons and a large tower with its bells and town clock".

In 1872, when the temporary power of the popes came to an end, it underwent a profound makeover and became the Town Hall, which remained there until the middle of the 1970s. Even the main façade of the building was not the one already facing the main square, but the one on the opposite side, facing today’s Piazza Solferino. With the advent of the Kingdom of Italy, the building passed to municipal power, a return to its origins in some way. It therefore became the seat of the mayor during the fascist era and then of municipal offices during the Republican era. Up to the middle of the 1970s when the town hall was relocated and the building was once again subjected to renovations due to the damage caused during the Second World War, it became the city library. The most recent extensive renovation took place 10 years later. This time the tower that had been destroyed by bombs was rebuilt. The former classical bell-tower adorned with a crenelated frame was replaced by a modern glass and marble structure, a stylised representation of the Marmore Falls.