The most important and interesting building in the town is undoubtedly the Rector’s Palace, which is to Ragusa what the Ducal Palace is to Venice. It was commenced by architects inspired by Venetian ideas, and completed by others devoted to Renaissance art. The site of the existing edifice was originally occupied—in the days when the whole town was confined to the seaward ridge, and separated from the mainland by a marshy channel where the Stradone now runs—by a castle as a defence against the Vlach settlement on the opposite side. When this was absorbed, and the marshy channel filled in, the castle was enlarged and strengthened, and later became the seat of the Government and the residence of the Count. Beyond the fact that it was protected by four towers,[504] we know nothing about this early building. Already, in 1272, it was spoken of as a very ancient edifice,[505] and in 1349 the Council decided “quod sala veteris palatii ubi dominus Comes habitat reaptetur et altius elevetur,”[506] which seems to show that it had been allowed to fall into disrepair. In 1388 it was demolished, and on its site the foundations of a larger and more commodious building were laid. The new palace was not completed until 1420, and of this also little is known, as fifteen years later a fire destroyed “the spacious palace of Ragusa, which was in ancient times the castle, together with certain towers, and nearly all the ammunition and arms which were kept for the defence of the city and the armament of the galleys.”[507] “Then the Ragusan Government decided that the Palace should be rebuilt with more magnificent construction, sparing no expense, and that the greater part of the former castle which the fiery flame had not consumed should be levelled with the ground, the architect being a certain Mastro Onofrio Giordani of La Cava, in the kingdom of Naples. The walls are made of ashlar stone (De Diversis was a witness both of the fire and of the reconstruction), finely wrought and very ornamentally carved, with great vaults resting on tall and stout columns, which were brought from Curzola.[508] The capitals, or upper parts of these columns, are carved with great pains. There are five large entire columns, but two other half-columns, one attached to one tower, the other to the other; on the first was carved Æsculapius, the restorer of medical art, at the instigation of that remarkable poet and most learned man of letters, Niccolò de Lazina (Larina or Laziri), a noble of Cremona.... For since he knew, and had learned in his literary studies, that Æsculapius had his origin at Epidaurus, which is now called Ragusa,[509] he took the greatest pains and trouble that his image should be carved on the building, and he composed a metrical epitaph to him, which was fixed in the wall. On a central column of the entrance to the Palace is seen sculptured the first righteous judgment of Solomon. In an angle of the principal door is the likeness of the Rector hearing offences.