Piazza

A piazza is an open square in a city, often used as a marketplace, found in Italy. It is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza. Piazza has taken some slightly different meanings in Britain and the US. In Ethiopia, it is used to refer to a part of a city.

When the Earl of Bedford developed the first privately-ventured public square built in London, Covent Garden, his architect Inigo Jones surrounded it with arcades, in the Italian fashion. Aristocratic talk about the piazza was connected in Londoners' minds, not with the square as a whole but with the arcades, which were called the "piazzas."

In Britain a piazza now generally refers to a paved open pedestrian space, without grass or planting, often in front of a significant building or shops.

In the United States, in the early 19th century, a "piazza" by further extension became a fanciful name for a colonnaded porch.

Examples of piazzas

• Piazza San Marco, in Venice
• St. Peter's Piazza, in Vatican City
• Piazza del Duomo
• Piazza del Campo
• Piazza delle Erbe
• Piazza Navona
• Piazza di Spagna

See also

• List of city squares