Palazzo Reale, Royal palace in Pavia, Italy.

Palazzo Reale was a sprawling palace complex in Pavia spread across multiple buildings connected by courtyards and passageways that defined the city's center. The compound included royal mint facilities, court offices, law schools for training judges, and thermal baths for the rulers and their household.

Founded in the 6th century by Ostrogoth king Theodoric, this served as the power center for Lombard rulers and their successors across northern Italy. Its destruction in 1024 ended an era when this place had shaped the region's fate for centuries.

Each year around 1 March the palace hosted a great assembly where Lombard kings promulgated laws and debated the kingdom's affairs. Court titles mixed Roman and Germanic origins, from the marpahis, master of the horses, to the stolesaz, the treasurer. The queen kept her own household in the palace, administered by an official called the scafardus.

The palace remains lie beneath and beside modern buildings in Pavia's center, where ongoing archaeological digs are uncovering more of the original structures. You can visit some of these excavation sites, though access may be limited or irregular since work is still happening.

The palace housed its own law school where young men trained to become royal judges and manage the region's legal system. This school was unusual for its time and shows how much the ruler valued education and stable administration.