Passing through Via Marconi and Via Mazzini you reach Piazza del Municipio, dominated by the large façade of Palazzo Attems-Santacroce, which has been the seat of the Municipality of Gorizia since 1907.

On May 22, 1915, a few days before Italy entered the war, the city council of Gorizia was dissolved, while the mayor Giorgio Bombig was interned for irredentism. The following day, Count Ernesto Dandini, an official of the Lieutenancy of Trieste, was appointed city commissioner. He was primarily responsible for providing supplies to the remaining population and assisting refugees. With the start of the bombings, the municipal offices were moved to the cellars of the building, where the employees carried out their duties, ate meals, and even slept.

With the arrival of Italian troops, the city's military and civil government took office in the palace. On August 20, 1916, King Victor Emmanuel II stopped briefly here on his visit to Gorizia, welcomed by Carabinieri Major Giovanni Sestili, the royal commissioner for the city's civil administration.