The Palace of the Magnificent Community of Mel is an elegant building whose construction began in 1510 and is currently the Town Hall of Borgo Valbelluna.
Above the roof, a turret is clearly visible, probably painted by Giovanni da Mel or his brother Marco, in which the large clock that was originally located in the bell tower destroyed by lightning in 1756 was placed. The entrance consists of a wide loggia with full arches and cross vaults supported outside by columns with Ionic capitals.
You can observe the carved coat of arms of the Zorzi family, counts of Mel from 1422 to 1720, set into the wall to the right of the access door, and the prison bars through which the condemned could hear the sentence being read in the loggia. The loggia was a large hall frescoed by Giovanni da Mel with solid wood stalls, unfortunately lost during a severe fire in 1633. Access to the first floor is through a wide stone staircase leading to the main hall of the Palace facing the square through an artistic pentafora.
It was frescoed by Marco da Mel in 1545, as can be read from the date placed above the trifora in the hall itself. The theme of the frescoes recalls some scenes from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. On the east-facing wall, opposite the entrance, the fourth canto is depicted, and although the fresco is fragmentary, some characters such as the Wizard Brunello tied to the tree, the hippogriff, the castle of Atlas, and in the background houses, fortified cities, and little figures on horseback are evident. Above the entrance, the painter draws inspiration from the thirty-third canto, with Astolfo on the hippogriff arriving in Ethiopia to aid the King threatened by the harpies, on the right, the palace with elegant loggias where the King and Court feast.
Decorative bands follow on the wide and majestic walls.
On the wall facing the Prealps, portraits of Lucrezia and Costantino Zorzi, counts of Zumelle, painted between the end of the 1500s and the beginning of the 1600s and attributed to Domenico Tintoretto, the son of Jacopo, are displayed.
On the top floor, the mechanism that regulated the original clock of the tower is visible. Finally, in the council chamber, two paintings by the Zumelle painter Luigi Cima can be admired.
