Palazzo Mezzabarba, Town hall at Piazza del Municipio, Pavia, Italy.

Palazzo Mezzabarba is a three-story palace with a T-shaped plan around two courtyards. Its facade has two columned portals, the right one false, and sinuous shell decorations. Granite columns in pairs or groups of four line the ground-floor portico, which leads to the grand staircase and the noble floor.

The palace was built between 1726 and 1732 by architect Giovanni Antonio Veneroni for the Mezzabarba family. It became Pavia's city hall in 1875 and has served as the municipal administrative center ever since.

The former ballroom, now the town council hall, was fully frescoed by Giovanni Angelo Borroni. On the ceiling he painted the triumph of the arts and sciences over vice and ignorance; on the walls, the stories of Diana. A gallery for the musicians remains beneath the ceiling, and other rooms hold his Iris Appearing to Aeolus in a Dream, the Chariot of the Sun and Hagar and Ishmael.

The palace stands on Piazza del Municipio, whose present width results from demolitions carried out between 1911 and 1936, so the façade is best seen from the far side of the square. The right-hand portal of the façade is a fake, closed door; the working entrance is the left one. The oratory of Saints Quirico and Giulitta occupies the eastern corner of the building.

Next to the main palace stands a private chapel built in 1734 and dedicated to Saints Quirico and Giulitta. This small sacred space features gilded decorations and vault frescoes that many visitors overlook when exploring the site.