| Since 1478 Martina had a Università, i.e. the town administrative assembly where all the social classes had to be represented, thanks to a concession of Ferdinando d’Aragona. The house of this local parliament stood in the square, close to the Medieval Colleggiata of San Martino.
After a few centuries, in the midst of the full height of the Baroque period, it was decided to knock down the previous building and to build a new, more appropriate one and therefore between 1759 and 1761, on behest of the mayor Desiati, the current Palazzo dell'Università was erected.
The façade is symmetrically split by pilasters and stringcourses made of local stone which divide the ample limewash paintings in the background. The portal is sombrely decorated with acanthus leaves and volutes, while the upper floor is much more articulate as the doors are surmounted by mixtilinear spandrels and clypeuses. On the central balcony’s tympanum there is a high relief of a horse without bits which seems to gallop freely. This is not a casual decorative element but the essential portrayal of the town's coat-of-arms.
The top floor, lower and more squat, was meant to host the prison.
Nowadays the Palazzo dell’Università is home to the Società Artigiana, a benefit association, founded in 1888 by Paolo Grassi and Raffaele Casavola, of Mazzinian’s inspiration. The Società Artigiana (Artisan Guild) was born following some inside-disagreements within the Società Operaia (Worker Guild) in via Garibaldi. Furthermore, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the dispute between the two societies also had political repercussions, as the members of the Società Artigiana sided with the “pipistrelli” who had a liberal idea, and were against the “crumiri” of the Società Operaia, supporters of the radical idea. |