Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici, Renaissance city palace in Piazza Grande, Arezzo, Italy

The Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici stands on Piazza Grande between the apse of the Pieve di Santa Maria and the Vasari Loggias. Its facade has a deep-splayed portal flanked by two single-light windows, a lunette with a copy of Spinello Aretino's Cristo in pietà, and above it Bernardo Rossellino's stone Madonna della Misericordia with Saints Lorentino and Pergentino. A bell tower with an astronomical clock of 1552 rises above the loggetta.

Construction began in 1375 under Florentine masters Baldino di Cino and Niccolò di Francesco; the first façade register was finished by 1377, when Spinello Aretino was commissioned to paint the lunette. Bernardo Rossellino added the Madonna della Misericordia group in 1434. Giorgio Vasari directed the bell tower (1546–1550) and the façade completion, and the astronomical clock was installed in 1552. The Fraternita returned in 2010 after the court moved out.

The Fraternita dei Laici, founded in 1262 by Bishop Guglielmino degli Ubertini, commissioned the palace and still has its seat there. In the ground-floor Audience Hall, Parri di Spinello's 1448 fresco of the Madonna della Misericordia shows influential citizens and benefactors sheltered under her cloak; the painter received 42 lire and 10 soldi for it.

The building sits right on Piazza Grande and is easy to locate with clear entrance points. Plan around two hours to walk through the rooms and explore the collections without rushing.

The bell tower above the loggia was built by Giorgio Vasari between 1546 and 1550, using an old bell the Fraternita obtained from the city in 1546. In 1552 an astronomical clock was connected to its three bells and marked each quarter hour. The clock still faces Piazza Grande.