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The Ducal Palace, Urbino

The twin towers of the Palazzo Ducale, one of Italy's finest examples of Renaissance architecture, are an unmistakable feature of Urbino's skyline and the noble traveller approaching the city from Rome or Florence could have been left in no doubt that he was about to enter one of Europe's most illustrious courts.

Here, Duke Federico da Montefeltro, among the most enlightened rulers of his day, gathered around him some of the greatest painters, poets and scholars of the time in a court which Baldessarre Castiglione, author of The Courtier, described as being "like a city in the form of a palace" and "in the opinion of many, the most beautiful palace in all Italy". The Palazzo Ducale still stands today as an eloquent memorial to that quintessential Renaissance man.

Federico became Duke in 1444 but he did not start work on his new palace until ten years later when he had already begun to earn a name as one of the great military generals of his day. By 1468, when the Dalmatian architect Luciano Laurana began work at the palace as "engineer and head of all master builders" the section overlooking the town piazza was already nearing completion but the problem of how to construct the now famous twin-towered west frontage up the city's steep rocky slope had yet to be solved. It was Laurana who decided to create the central interior courtyard and devised an ingenious plan to construct the west frontage from the base of the cliff with a complex series of levels and stairways.

The internal courtyard, or Cortile d'Onore, is a masterpiece of proportion and light and the first of its kind, copied in countless other Renaissance palaces throughout Italy. Laurana was also responsible for the Grand Stairway (described by Vasari as the most beautiful of its time) and many of the state rooms in the palace. The proportions of each is human in scale, designed more to inspire rather than intimidate.

When Laurana left Urbino for Naples in 1472 for reasons which remain a mystery, the palace was still far from finished and Duke Federico, now famous throughout Europe, was more than ever anxious to complete his ambitious project. In order to do so, he brought Francesco di Giorgio Martini, one of the great architects of the 15th Century, to Urbino to continue work on the palace as well as to strengthen and rebuild many of the castles around his territory.

By this stage of the work Martini had little option but to respect Laurana's general design, though he is responsible for much of the detail, including the magnificent facade around the palace entrance. By the time of Duke Federico's death in 1482 he had managed to bring the palace more or less to completion.

Much of the original decoration in the Palace, which now houses the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, has survived, including its magnificent fireplaces and stucco ceilings and Duke Federico's tiny "studiolo", intricately panelled with trompe l'oeil woodwork.