Palace of Justice

Based on an initial 1980s design by Leonardo Ricci, a pupil of Giovanni Michelucci, the new courthouse was built to bring together judicial offices previously scattered around the city: the Tribunal, Court of Appeal, Public Prosecutor’s Office and Justice of the Peace. Officially inaugurated in 2012, it is named after the Florentine jurist and politician Piero Calamandrei, one of the founding fathers of the Italian Republic. Its unmistakable bulk—240 metres long and 146 metres wide, with a 72-metre tower—makes it one of Italy’s largest courthouses. The building has divided critics and admirers. It takes the form of a gigantic organism, with a lively arrangement of gradually assembled spaces and a wide range of materials.