Originally an ancient internal courtyard of palazzo Manfredi. It appears certain that there was once a mill, hence the name and the existence of water channels. Access to the piazza or the court of Molinella is via two archways, both from via Pistocchi and from Piazza del Popolo. The archway is of Manfredi origin with the Palazzo Comunale and the large umbrella vaulted ceiling with 1556 frescoes by Faentine painter Marco da Faenza with grotesques and allegoric figures.
When entering the piazza on the left is the beautiful neo-classical façade of the “Teatro Masini", erected by Giuseppe Pistocchi for the Municipality between 1780 and 1787.  The base also made up of the long gallery called the “Galleria dei Cento Pacifici” (the name of a congregation of magnates founded in the Middle Ages to pacify the various factions of the city, but suppressed by Napoleon in 1797, as it had become the centre of secret power) was built for between '85-86, as the meeting hall for the Magistratura dei Cento Pacifici and as the junction between the theatre and the 1500’s wing of Palazzo Manfredi which runs along Corso Mazzini.
Piazza Molinella, at the end of the 1980’s named after Pietro Nenni, a Faentine politician (although still referred to as its old name by the community), recently underwent heavy restoration works which have given back its original aspect, as much as possible, to both the buildings and the piazza itself. The river cobble stone paving has also been redone, certainly present since back in the 1700’s.

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