Palazzo Contucci, Renaissance palace in Piazza Grande, Montepulciano, Italy

Palazzo Contucci stands on the eastern side of Piazza Grande in Montepulciano, built from 1519 to a design by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder on the remains of the city's first walls. Its ground floor has smooth ashlar stonework; the five first-floor windows sit in aedicules with triangular pediments on Ionic half-columns, and the top floor has a brick band with five windows framed by flattened volutes.

Palazzo Contucci was begun in 1519 to a design by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, built on the remains of Montepulciano's first city wall. It belonged at first to the Del Monte family and passed to the Contucci in 1642. The illusionistic frescoes of the piano nobile hall were painted in 1701–1702 and are attributed to Andrea Pozzo.

The name Contucci dates from 1642, when the Del Monte family sold the palace to the Contucci. The noble floor's hall walls carry illusionistic frescoes attributed to Andrea Pozzo, painted in 1701–1702: porticoes, gardens and terraces framed by twisted columns. Visitors look for the painted architecture that seems to open the walls onto invented views.

The palace stands on the eastern side of Piazza Grande, in Montepulciano's historic centre, and is a private residence, so the interior is not open as a museum. View the facade from the square: smooth ashlar stone on the ground floor, five first-floor windows framed by Ionic half-columns and triangular pediments, and a brick band with five windows above. Ask the Contucci family in advance about seeing the frescoed salon.

The palace passed from the Del Monte family to the Contucci in 1642, more than a century after construction began in 1519. Look up at the top floor: a brick band with five windows framed by flattened volutes, a detail easily missed from the square below.