Construction began in 1255, and the original two-story palace was built alongside the Volognana Tower in 1256. It housed the Capitano del Popolo and, from 1261, the podestà, the city's highest magistrate, and was first called the Palazzo del Podestà. The courtyard dates from 1280 to 1285, and a third story followed a fire in 1323.
Neri di Fioravante added the external staircase between 1345 and 1367. The article calls it an austere crenellated building and says it served as the model for the Palazzo Vecchio. It names no formal style. The courtyard has arcades and a central well. In 1479 Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli, a figure in the Pazzi conspiracy, was hanged from the building.
It was a prison, and executions took place in the courtyard until 1786. It was restored from 1858 to 1865 and became a national museum of sculpture in 1865.
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