The magnificent Palazzo Ducale°° is the protagonist of the beautiful and recently renewed Piazza Roma. At the time of the Dukedom, the square was used for official celebrations and to receive Princes and Popes who came here visiting the Estense family.
On the right of the facade, the monument represents Ciro Menotti, the Modenese leader of the insurrection of 1831 and of the Italian Risorgimento (Giuseppe Garibaldi admired him so much that he called one of this sons Menotti!). The statue was carried out by Cesare Sighinolfi in 1880: the national hero, standing with a flag, looking the Palazzo Ducale, exactly towards the wonderful gold drawing room where probably he was condemned to death by Duke Francesco IV, his opponant. At the base, his fellow conspirators: don Giuseppe Andreoli, Vincenzo Borelli, Giuseppe Ricci and Anacarsi Nardi.
The big building with a portico at number 37 is the so-called palazzo dell’Intendenza Camerale: the older houses were transformed by the Duke in the years 1836-8 to serve the court. In front of the Palazzo Ducale°°, largo San Giorgio° has its wonderful baroque church and via Farini° starts. On the left, on the red house, the Fonte d’Abisso is a little fountain flowing from one of the many underground springs. Just behind there is piazza San Domenico°.
Between the windows of the Palazzo Ducale°° there are many commemorative plaques. Starting from the right; to Luigi Carlo Farini, statesman of Emilia-Romagna in the years of the Unity of Italy and to the patriot Giuseppe Malmusi. The third one commemorates the decision, taken in the palazzo in 1797, to declare the Italian tricolour flag as the one representing the Cisalpine Republic; the fourth is dedicated to general Manfredo Fanti; the last is for the gold medal awarded to Modena for the partisan resistance during the Second World War.
