Ancient Courthouse
Piazza Statuto, formerly Piazza delle Erbe

Ancient courthouse, next to a palace of the Guttuari family. Gothic architecture, with later readaptations (18th century).

Guttuari Tower
Corner of Piazza Statuto / Via xx Settembre

The tower is topped by a coping dating from the 19th century. The square was once the site of the houses of the Guttuari family (heads of the Ghibelline faction driven out by the Guelfs in the alternating events of the internal struggles for power (late 13th - early 14th century). In the square there was the stone of the fish stall, where the ritual of the declaration of bankruptcy was performed for insolvent merchants. Merchant trading in Asti had been regulated by very strict laws since the 10th century; therefore, in 992 the Emperor Otto III recognized the merchant's right to trade freely and with no restrictions within the confines of the Holy Roman Empire.