The Civic Library is housed in the splendid palace built by Alessandro Gambalunga from Rimini between 1610 and 1614, in the street where the homes of the city's aristocracy stood.

Influenced by the architecture of Sebastiano Serlio, the building can be admired for the elegance of its classical constructional and ornamental details.


The massive entrance arch opens onto a fine courtyard, at the centre of which since 1928 an 18th-century well in Istrian limestone has stood.


In the entrance and courtyard there are several marble plaques dedicated by Rimini's inhabitants to their illustrious fellow citizens.


The ground floor was originally occupied by stables, workshops, storerooms and coach-houses. On the top storey there were storerooms for grain, accommodation for servants and the steward, and a small workshop for the binding of books, of which Gambalunga was a diligent collector.

The first floor, now occupied by the Civic Library, was given over to the apartments of Alessandro and his wife Raffaella Diotallevi. Luxuriously furnished with tapestries, brocade and paintings, the mansion was a meeting place for scholars and writers, of which Alessandro was a generous patron. After his death, the library was moved to the three ground-floor rooms on Via Tempio Malatestiano, remaining here until the 1970's, when the building was restructured, allowing the Civic Library to take possession of the first floor. Here, together with new multimedia services, are the four historical rooms (three from the 17th and one from the 18th centuries) that contain the library's original furnishings and book collections. The ground floor now houses the Film Library and the Children's Library.