The Palazzo Pubblico (Public Palace) is the town hall of the City of San Marino as well as its official Government Building. The building, where official State ceremonies take place, is the seat of the Republic's main institutional and administrative bodies: the Captains Regent, the Grand and General Council, the Council of XII, and the Congress of State.
The main section of the building is topped by battlements over a series of corbels. The clock tower above also features such an arrangement with battlements and corbels. The overall design is similar to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, but on a much smaller scale.
Located on the site of an ancient building called the Domus Magna Comunis, the current building was designed by the Roman architect Francesco Azzurri and was built between 1884 and 1894. After a hundred years of existence, it was becoming unsafe in today's standards, so a complex restoration project was undergone. The intervention was completed by the internationally renowned architect Gae Aulenti on 30 September 1996.
References:The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg is situated in a strategic area on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. From 1900 to 1908 it was rebuilt at the behest of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
The first records of a castle built by the Hohenstaufens date back to 1147. The fortress changed its name to Koenigsburg (royal castle) around 1157. The castle was handed over to the Tiersteins by the Habsburgs following its destruction in 1462. They rebuilt and enlarged it, installing a defensive system designed to withstand artillery fire.
The fortification work accomplished over the 15th century did not suffice to keep the Swedish artillery at bay during the Thirty Years War, and the defences were overrun.