Palazzo della Funicolare (Palazzo Rota Suardi) ---

Palazzo Rota, later Rota Suardi, is located in Bergamo Alta and overlooks the charming Piazza Mercato delle Scarpe, one of the city's oldest squares, mentioned in documents as early as 1263. Once belonging to the shoemakers' consortium, which had its headquarters there until 1331 as Domus Calegariorum, it also hosted for a time the butchers' consortium, called Paratico dei Beccai. In the mid-14th century, in 1353, it was purchased by Guidino Suardi, descendant of the local palatine count Teutaldo. It remained the property of the family long enough to assume specific characteristics linked to their legal-administrative role: the small balcony on the façade was indeed added at the behest of Guido who, as a palatine, had the right to make public proclamations. Subsequently the building passed to the Rota family, undergoing