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Todi’s Palazzo del Capitano, also called Palazzo Nuovo, stands on the eastern side of Piazza del Popolo, next to Palazzo del Popolo, which stands a little further back. A large staircase joins them; today the palaces are the seats of the Municipal Council and Municipal Museums.
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Palazzo del Capitano was built in 1293 and was originally separated from the contiguous Palazzo del Popolo by a road that was later closed and covered.
In 1518, the vaults on the ground floor were walled up and re-opened only relatively recently. Instead, the entrance door on the top of the staircase dates back to the 1940s.
On the ground floor, behind the staircase leading to Palazzo del Popolo, two large round arches lead to the so-called voltoni—big vaults—a portico used as an atrium.
Above the voltoni, the three Gothic windows on the first floor stand out for their elegance. These are similar in style to some medieval Venetian edifices—apart from being similar to the windows of the second floor of Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia—each one consists of three lancet windows, with a circular motif in the tracery superimposed by a tympana, which provides light for the Hall of the Capitano del Popolo—Capitan of the People—a large room in which there are remnants of frescoes from the 14th century. On the same floor there is the Civic Museum archaeological collection that preserves archaeological finds found in the Tuderte territory.
On the highest floor there are four other three-lancet-windows, each one surmounted by a round arch, that provides light for the Municipal Art Gallery.
If Palazzo del Capitano of Todi is built in Gothic style and is characterized by a great harmony of its decorative elements, however, its main attractiveness is due to the important Museum collection it features inside.
On the first floor there is the Hall of the Capitano del Popolo, with its frescoes dated from the 14th century, facing Palazzo del Popolo’s General Council Hall. On the last floor, of both buildings, the Municipal Art Gallery is arranged. This Museum has gone through a very recent reorganization and includes many sections. The Municipal Heritage consists of two main nucleuses: the first comes from the Napoleonic requisitions, and the second from the suppression of religious corporations. To these a third is added with the archaeological collection of the early 1900s.
