Palazzo del Vescovo

Palazzo del Vescovo, an elegant Venetian-style building overlooking the Riviera Cavallotti along the Po di Volano, is a veritable temple of local culture. Its history is linked to the Benedictine Abbey of Pomposa and the central role that Codigoro played in the Middle Ages as the capital of the “Insula Pomposiana.”

Built on an ancient Roman sacred site, where a votive altar dedicated to the Junones was found, the palace was originally a “Domus Dominicata”, the residence and administrative headquarters of the Abbot of Pomposa. Over the centuries, it was rebuilt several times and became the center of the Abbey's civil and notarial activities.

In the 16th century, when the territory passed under the Duchy of Este, the building became the seat of the Pomposiana Provostry and the residence of the cardinal or his delegates. After the Devolution of the Duchy of Este to the Papal States (1598), a new political and administrative phase followed. Partially destroyed in 1631, it passed definitively to the Curia in 1762, taking the name of Palazzo del Vescovo.

In the 18th century, the Cestari family of Chioggia restored it, giving it the typical Venetian style: decorations with floral motifs, heraldic symbols, and references to the arts. During the 19th century, it returned to ecclesiastical ownership and, after World War I, it housed Venetian refugees until the 1950s.

In 1936, Pomposa was merged with the diocese of Comacchio. In the 1960s, the municipality of Codigoro purchased the palace, restored it (1976-78), and turned it into a cultural center and municipal library, which was named after Giorgio Bassani in 2001.