The Palazzo Pretorio of Sovana was built during the Middle Ages, almost certainly between the end of the XII century and the beginning of the Thirteenth Century: its existence is proven in a document dating back to 1208. The building preserved intact its original structure with arched windows until the beginning of the Fifteenth Century, when it was seriously damaged as a result of the siege that the Siena troops led to the city of Sovana: the subsequent restructuring carried out between 1413 and 1414 led to the modification of parts that were previously destroyed so irrecoverable. With the entrance of Sovana in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany occurred in 1555, the palace changed the use to which it was previously intended, also becoming the seat of the prison in the seventeenth century. In the late eighteenth century the complex was torn down and sold by Lorraine at the local diocese, being restored in the course of the subsequent decades. During the last century it became the seat of a warehouse, before being again restored and used as a museum.
The Palazzo Pretorio has a rectangular plan, with the main facade, which opens onto the Piazza del Pretorio, on the shorter side southern planimetric perimeter. Arranged on two levels, is characterized by the outer walls are completely covered in tuff. The main facade is leaned on a base with a shoe of support at the right hand corner, where it continues with the facade eastern side along which presents a creasing, while on the left side the facade is located adjacent to a small body of works that divides it from the characteristic Loggia del Capitano. The portal of the main entrance of rectangular shape and a lintel, opens in the right part preceded by a few steps; the left part of the facade is characterised by the presence of a secondary entrance portal arc. On the wall of the facade, which develops between the two portals and two quadrangular windows that open on the mezzanine floor, are placed nine coats of arms referable to the captains of the people and the Commissioners that historically there have served. Inside the palace is the seat of the visitor center of the Archaeological Park of the tufa and the relative documentation center of the territory sovanese. On the inner walls plastered stand out in some points frescoes of the sienese school realized between late medieval and Renaissance period.