Palace of the Town Hall and Celesti's Room

The square Martiri della Libertà is the main square of the town where we can see the Monument of the Fallen of the First World War (work by Luigi Contratti) and the Venetian Column with the Lion of San Marco, symbol of the Serenissima Republic of Venice, that governed Lonato since the middle of the XV century till the end of the XVIII century, for more than 350 years.

The School Institute “Paola di Rosa” was the seat of the Venetian Provveditore, instead the current form of the building of the Town Hall dates back to the XVII century.

The Council Room conserves an ancient eighteenth-century map of the area of Lonato and the ceiling has nineteenth-century decorations dedicated to the agronomist Camillo Tarello from Lonato (1517-1573). This big room is called also “Celesti’s Room” because it conserves a great work of art, done in 1693 for this room by the Venetian painter Andrea Celesti (1637-1712). The big painting (size cm. 262 x 735) was commissioned by the Council in 1692 (to remembering the end of the plague of 1630).

In the centre is depicted Jesus Christ, on his left the Virgin and on his right San Giovanni Battista, the Patron of Lonato. On the left there is the allegory of Lonato next to the Doge of Venice and the three Theological Virtues, while on the right the painter represented the results of the plague: an hospital and the flying demon.

 

In the square there are the weekly markets on Thursday and on Saturday morning, besides the antique trade’s market every third Sunday of the month (excluded January, July and August)