Palazzo Bucelli
About halfway up Montepulciano's steep main corso, at number 73, the lower walls of a handsome palazzo are studded with ancient stone. Etruscan funerary urns, centaurs, bulls, winged heads, winged horses, and fragments of inscription are set directly into the masonry — not arranged in any particular order, just pressed in wherever they fit, like a cabinet of curiosities turned inside out.
This is Palazzo Bucelli, and the casual, almost eccentric arrangement of the pieces is entirely in keeping with the man who put them there. You can take it all in from the pavement, for free, in a few unhurried minutes.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who have walked the Corso more than once tend to stop longer the second time. On a first pass it reads as decoration; on a closer look the inscriptions resolve into legible Latin and Etruscan script, and the reliefs turn out to be genuine funerary carvings — fragments of tombs that once stood somewhere in the hills around Chiusi and Montepulciano.
The story behind Palazzo Bucelli
Pietro Bucelli (1684–1754) was a scholar and antiquarian with a particular interest in the Etruscan civilisation that had flourished across this part of Tuscany long before Rome. Over his lifetime he gathered urns, reliefs, and inscribed stones from sites around Montepulciano and Chiusi, and rather than storing them indoors he had them embedded in the lower facade of his palazzo on the Corso.
After his death, the bulk of the collection passed first to Leopold I and then to the Grand Duke of Tuscany; most of it now sits in Florence. A portion is held at Montepulciano's Civic Museum. What remains on the building itself is the part that was always most public — the pieces Bucelli effectively donated to the street.
Good to know
The palazzo is on the main Corso (Via di Gracciano nel Corso), near the Porta al Prato end of town — most visitors pass it naturally on the way up. Viewing is free and from the street. Allow five to ten minutes. No tickets, no opening hours to worry about.
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What travellers say about Palazzo Bucelli
Antiga residência de Pietro Bucelli, um antiquário de Poliziano que viveu entre os séculos XVII e XVIII. A característica que distingue este palácio são as suas 116 peças arqueológicas incrustadas na sua fachada incluindo fragmentos de lápides, urnas funerárias e inscrições etruscas, criando um pequeno museu urbano.
This ancient noble palace belonged to the Bucelli family. Pietro owned a large collection of Etruscan artifacts. After his death in 1754, his brother Orazio placed hundreds of these artifacts on the palace's façade, which still adorns the palace today.
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