| he first Rector's Palace once was more a forbidding stone heap than the graceful mansion it is today, but the original 13th-century building was destroyed in 1435 when gunpowder stored inside exploded. The palace was rebuilt in a Venetian-Gothic style based on a design by architect Onofrio della Cava, only to explode again just 28 years later. The current Rector's Palace is on the same site just south of Luza Square, but it is a rehab rather than a redo; its Florentine designer Michelozzo Michelozzi grafted his work onto what was left of della Cava's. Functionally, the Rector's Palace was Ragusa's governmental nerve center and housed state offices as well as a dungeon and quarters for the rector, who was required to live in the palace for the duration of his term. Today, the palace's upstairs rooms house the City Museum (Gradski Muzej), filled with exhibits depicting how people lived in Ragusa.
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