Palazzo Pretorio in Vogogna, inspired by the typical architectural model of the Lombard broletto (town hall), is in the centre of this splendid old town in Lower Ossola and is characterised by a series of pointed arches supported by squat columns.
Built in 1348 on the orders of Giovanni Maria Visconti, Palazzo Pretorio was the seat of government of Ossola Inferiore until 1819. Public meetings and the market were held on the ground floor, while the upper floor was used for administrative and legal purposes.
Fragments of the original painted decorations are visible both in the interior and on the exterior, the most notable of which is the characteristic Visconti coat of arms on the upper part of the façade. When it ceased its function as the seat of government, Palazzo Pretorio was used as the town hall of Vogogna, but was closed in 1979 for major restoration work.
After reopening in 1998, it is now once again the town hall and inside houses the most important and symbolic artistic object of the old town of Vogogna, known as the “Mascherone Celtico” (Celtic Mask), a mysterious face sculpted in soapstone, and important evidence of Celtic art in Piedmont. The engravings that shape the face and large moustache under the straight nose underline the symbolic value of the mask, with the lines on the forehead coming together to form the branches of a tree starting from the nose and arriving at the arched eyebrows.
Studies and evidence seem to indicate that this exceptional example of figurative culture was meant to represent the Celtic god Cernunnos, lord of the woods, linked to the local cult of vegetation and very probably it was part of a statue placed in an open-air sacred area in the territory of Vogogna.
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