Palazzo del Podestà, edicola di Virgilio

The inscription "Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere: tenet nunc Parthenope: Cecini pascua rura duces" is visible at the feet of the poet. Under this inscription, an epigraph carved on a slab refers to the construction of the palace by order of the mayor Lodarengo di Martinengo from Brescia, dated 1227. During restoration traces of colour were detected, in particular a purple red over the robe. The terracotta frame can be dated to the beginning of the fifteenth century, as well as the marble columns to the right and left of the high relief. According to some researchers, the work dates to the early decades of the fourteenth century, its arrangement being the result of a more recent decision to place here a statue of the poet initially intended for another place. In any case, the popular devotion to this solemn looking man wearing a doctoral cap is well documented.