Palazzo Thun

Owned by the Thun family for four centuries since 1454, the family’s crest still reigns on the corners of the façade and on the portal’s keystone. The façade overlooking the ancient via Larga features traces of imitating ashlar decorations. In the 1550s it got annexed to other buildings and underwent a radical transformation. During the last phase of the Council of Trento, the palace housed several assemblies and hosted the Pope’s envoys, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and Cardinal Giovanni Morone. The palazzi Thun, Quetta and Geremia were connected by a wooden bridge constructed by the council fathers to facilitate movements from one palazzo to the other. Later Palazzo Thun was enlarged till reaching Santa Maria Maggiore. Key refurbishing works, started in 1831, were carried out under the supervision of Brescia-based architect Rodolfo Vantini. In 1873 Palazzo Thun was purchased by the municipality of Trento and became the seat of the City Council. It houses paintings and chimneys of the Baroque age and numerous artistic testimonies linked to the civic identity of Trento: among these, the stone statue of Neptune, created in 1768 by Stefano Salterio for the fountain in Piazza del Duomo (replaced in situ by a copy in bronze). The hall on the noble floor, where today the meetings of the City Council take place, was decorated in 1938 by the Veronese painter Pino Casarini. Particularly interesting, are the torn frescoes visible on the walls of the grand staircase: these are the murals that adorned the façade of Casa Cloz-Garavaglia in via San Marco till 1909, kept here for conservation. They were made in 1551 - the year in which the Council was re-convened - by the Veronese painter Domenico Riccio known as Brusasorci and depict mythological scenes, allegorical figures and episodes of Roman history (Victory of Cartagena and Continenza by Scipione). During the Council Baron Sigismondo Thun made the palace available to host two papal legates: the cardinal of Mantua Ercole Gonzaga, who died there on 2 March 1563, and cardinal Giovanni Girolamo Morone, his successor in the presidency of the Council. Here the preparatory congregations of the third phase of the synod were held.  Only the internal courtyard can be visited. Cappella Vantini and Torre Mirana are opened just for exhibitions and events.

Palazzo Thun and Cesare Battisti

Cesare Battisti’s political experience in boardrooms begins in the Trento city council. He is 28 years old when he is elected for the first time and with him in the ranks of the socialist party is elected also Augusto Avancini. This is an important achievement: the party was founded only eight years earlier and this success shows how deeply rooted it is in the city population. Battisti’s style of intervention during the meetings at the city council is often very direct, almost scientific. His education as anthropogeographer and the empirical approach he employed to the study of nature and mountain economics give the speeches contents that are often based on statistical research or on field observations.

Battisti is elected in the Trento city council four times: 1902, 1904, 1911, 1914. The most important legislature is that of 1911 when an electoral reform which widens considerably the number of electors in the city is approved. This reform was written by a commission elected by the chief magistrate Antonio Tambosi; the members were seven: 4 liberals, Cesare Battisti – the only socialist – and two Catholics, including Alcide De Gasperi.

Battisti’s political commitment goes beyond the city council of Trento: in 1911 he is elected as delegate of his city in Vienna parliament. In addition to the commitment to obtain a university in Italian in Trieste, Battisti participates to denounce the catastrophic economic situation in Trentino, the need for infrastructure and the impact that the construction of fortifications on the southern border has on local fragile economies.