The square corresponds to the cortile della Molinella of Palazzo Manfredi, the main courtyard of the noble residence, which may owe its name to a water passage system.
Access has been allowed since its inception through two long vaulted structures, the voltoni: one leading to Piazza del Popolo, known as the Voltone della Molinella, and the other towards via Pistocchi.
The Voltone della Molinella is distinguished by a large frescoed ceiling in grotesques, painted in 1566 by Marco Marchetti da Faenza, commissioned by Monte Valenti, the representative of the Papal State in Romagna and promoter of the palace's renovation during the 16th century.
Upon entering the square, on the left you can see the 18th-century façade of the Teatro Comunale Angelo Masini, built by Giuseppe Pistocchi between 1780 and 1787, which gives the square a sober neoclassical proportion. During the Renaissance, this area housed the second courtyard of the Manfredi palace, where the stables were located.
Piazza Molinella, named in the late 1980s after Pietro Nenni, a Faenza political figure, underwent an extensive restoration, which returned, as far as possible, the original appearance to the buildings and the square itself.
