By entering through the keep of the Clock Tower, we have access to the majestic Cortile d’onore. The integration of the courtyard of honour at the centre of Pio’s residential complex in the first part of XVI century, by Alberto Pio III’s will, gives a new image to the palace, so that it does not only serves as central gateway among the different parts of the building and between the new square and the ancient medieval centre in the East, but also as first representation place for those entering the palace.
The courtyard, consisting of a regular gallery with marble columns forming a round arched colonnade topped by two sopraloggias closed on the top floors, represents one of the best Renaissance work in Carpi and reveals the influence of models from Urbino and Rome in the overlapped galleries and from Ferrara and Lombardy in their good-quality decorative elements, capitals, corbels, ledges, with figured elements, made by Bartolomeo Spani from Reggio.
