Liston (square)

Last updated
The liston of Belluno covered by snow Piazza Martiri Belluno.jpg
The liston of Belluno covered by snow

Liston is a Venetian word used in various cities of the Veneto region and former possessions of the former Republic of Venice to indicate a part of the city, usually a square or section of a square. The term liston refers to the long marble slabs used for paving the streets. The term far el liston, means "to walk around the square".

Veneto Region of Italy

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fifth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice.

Republic of Venice Former state in Northeastern Italy

The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic, traditionally known as La Serenissima was a sovereign state and maritime republic in northeastern Italy, which existed for over a millennium between the 7th century and the 18th century from 697 AD until 1797 AD. It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice, and was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Contents

Several cities in the Veneto have a liston. In Venice it is the name of the walk from St. Mark's Square past the columns of Marco and Todaro. In Verona it is the west side of Piazza Bra. In Padua it is part of the Prato della Valle. In Belluno the liston is in Martyrs' Square (also known as the "Campedel"). In Rovigo it is the central part of the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. In Trieste, which has strong ties with Venetian culture, it is called the Corso Italia. In the Greek island of Corfu the locals still use the word to indicate the main promenade of Corfu city.

Venice Comune in Veneto, Italy

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers. In 2018, 260,897 people resided in the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 55,000 live in the historical city of Venice. Together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.

Verona Comune in Veneto, Italy

Verona is a city on the Adige river in Veneto, Italy, with 258,108 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third largest in northeast Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of 1,426 km2 (550.58 sq mi) and has a population of 714,274 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy, because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs, shows, and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheater built by the Romans.

Piazza Bra square in Verona, Italy

Piazza Bra, often shortened to Bra, is the largest piazza in Verona, Italy, with some claims that it is the largest in the country. The piazza is lined with numerous cafés and restaurants, along with several notable buildings. The Verona Arena, originally an amphitheatre built nearly 2000 years ago, is now a world-famous music venue with regular operatic and contemporary music performances. Verona's town hall, the Palazzo Barbieri, also looks out across the piazza.

Venice

El Liston (1884) by Giacomo Favretto (1849-1887) Favretto - El Liston 1884.png
El Liston (1884) by Giacomo Favretto (1849–1887)

In Venice the Campo Santo Stefano was a grass area for many centuries, apart from the stone liston. This was the place where Venetians would stroll and meet, and the term for "take a walk" in the Venetian dialect is still andare al liston. [1] Later the term liston was used for the Piazza San Marco, described as "the general rendezvous of the promenaders and ... the fashionable lounge of Venice". [2]

Piazza San Marco square in Venice, Italy

Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. All other urban spaces in the city are called campi ("fields"). The Piazzetta is an extension of the Piazza towards the lagoon in its south east corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are commonly considered together. This article relates to both of them.

Writing of 18th century Venice, Giovanni Rossi (1776–1852) describes the liston in the fashionable area near the San Stefano Church. During the carnival young nobles strutted there like peacocks wearing tabàro capes and the "most civilized mask", the baùta. Although the common people could walk there, according to Rossi, "their education was such that commoners left the nobles their space in liberty." [3] Giacomo Favretto depicted El Liston in 1884, showing figures in elegant costumes walking and meeting in the heart of Venice. [4]

Santo Stefano, Venice church

The Chiesa di Santo Stefano is a large Roman Catholic church at the northern end of the Campo Santo Stefano in the sestiere of San Marco, Venice, Italy.

Giacomo Favretto Italian painter

Giacomo Favretto was an Italian painter, mainly depicting genre subjects in Venice, his native city.

Belluno

Martyrs' Square (Italian : Piazza dei Martiri, also known as Campedel) in Belluno, is called the "living room" of the city. [5] The square is just outside the walls of the old city. Some historians claim that shape of the north side of the square was defined by the radius of guns defending the former walls of the city, to the south, which no longer exist. [6] The axis of the square is defined by the liston, a long promenade. According to tradition, the quaint paved liston was made when the city was under the rule of the Venetian Republic. [6] As of 2011 plans to redevelop the square were being considered, retaining the historic liston but removing the road that runs along the southern margin. [7]

Italian language Romance language

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the closest language to Vulgar Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City. It has an official minority status in western Istria. It formerly had official status in Albania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro (Kotor) and Greece, and is generally understood in Corsica and Savoie. It also used to be an official language in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa, where it plays a significant role in various sectors. Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. In spite of not existing any Italian community in their respective national territories and of not being spoken at any level, Italian is included de jure, but not de facto, between the recognized minority languages of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Romania. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages.

Belluno Comune in Veneto, Italy

Belluno, is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about 100 kilometres north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region. With its roughly 36,000 inhabitants, it is the largest populated area of Valbelluna. It is one of the 15 municipalities of the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park.

Padua

Padua Liston.jpg
Padua

In Padua, historically, the liston was the stretch of Prato della Valle on the west side, opposite the Loggia Amulea, paved with trachyte in the first half of the 19th century by the architect Giuseppe Jappelli. Typically on Saturdays and on other occasions the walk was used for lively outdoor markets.[ citation needed ]

Prato della Valle square in Padua, Italy

Prato della Valle is a 90,000 square meter elliptical square in Padova, Italy. It is the largest square in Italy, and one of the largest in Europe. Today, the square is a large space with a green island at the center, l'Isola Memmia, surrounded by a small canal bordered by two rings of statues.

Trachyte igneous rock

Trachyte is an igneous volcanic rock with an aphanitic to porphyritic texture. It is the volcanic equivalent of syenite. The mineral assemblage consists of essential alkali feldspar; relatively minor plagioclase and quartz or a feldspathoid such as nepheline may also be present.. Biotite, clinopyroxene and olivine are common accessory minerals.

Giuseppe Jappelli Italian architect

Giuseppe Jappelli was an Italian neoclassic architect and engineer who was born and died in Venice. He studied at the Clementine Academy in Bologna. In 1836–7, he traveled to France and England, an experience that would be formative on his career as a park architect. His best-known work is the Pedrocchi Café in Padua. Among his other projects are:

In recent years the term Liston has come to be extended to the central Via Umberto I, Via Roma, Via Cavour and Via VIII Febbraio, after the pedestrianization of the area between the mid-1980s and the year 2000. This has entered the common language of newspapers and local TV stations, even if technically incorrect. However the term applies well to these roads, since the creation of the pedestrian zone has effectively created a single long walk from Prato della Valle to Piazza Garibaldi.[ citation needed ]

Rovigo

In Rovigo there is a liston in both the squares of the historic center, the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and the Piazza Garibaldi. The second runs along the old boundaries of the Church of Santa Giustina, demolished in 1809.[ citation needed ]

Verona

Verona Verona Italy Piazza Bra from arena DSC08039.JPG
Verona

In Verona the liston is the wide sidewalk that borders the Piazza Bra on the west side, curving around the Arena. The piazza is a popular place for both tourists and local people to promenade. The liston is now used for outdoor seating by the many cafés surrounding the piazza. [8]

Ferrara

Ferrara has a liston next to the Cathedral in the ancient "Piazza delle Erbe", now called the "Piazza Trento & Trieste". Although Ferrara is part of the Emilia region, it has many Venetian aspects and is considered a bridge between the Emilian and Venetian culture.[ citation needed ]

Corfu

The Liston in Corfu 2001-09 Corfu-Stadt-13.jpg
The Liston in Corfu

The Liston in Corfu, with arcaded terraces and fashionable cafes, was built in 1807 by the French imperial commissioner Mathieu de Lesseps. It is an excellent example of architecture from the Napoleonic period, when Corfu was part of the First French Empire. The design was inspired by the Rue de Rivoli, Paris. [9]

Brewster Chamberlin celebrated it in his 2005 poem Along the Liston, Corfu, describing the Liston as a crowded, relaxed place to sit and snack and watch the promenaders. [10]

The Liston runs along one side of the Spianada, part town square and part park. At one time it was a firing range for Venetian troops.

Now it holds a cricket pitch, a British innovation that is regularly used by local teams. [11]

Related Research Articles

Corfu Place in Greece

Corfu or Kerkyra is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the northwesternmost part of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality, which also includes the smaller islands of Ereikoussa, Mathraki and Othonoi. The municipality has an area of 610,9 km2, the island proper 592,8 km2. The principal city of the island and seat of the municipality is also named Corfu. Corfu is home to the Ionian University.

Padua Comune in Veneto, Italy

Padua is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 214,000. The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE) which has a population of c. 2,600,000.

Udine Comune in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Udine is a city and comune in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps. Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with the urban area.

Vittorio Veneto Comune in Veneto, Italy

Vittorio Veneto is a city and comune situated in the Province of Treviso, in the region of Veneto, Italy, in the northeast of Italy, between the Piave and the Livenza rivers.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy's oldest active shopping mall and a major landmark of Milan, Italy. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the center of town, the Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1867.

Province of Treviso Province of Italy

The Province of Treviso is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso. The province is surrounded by Belluno in the north, Vicenza in the west, Padua in southwest, Venice in the southeast and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the east. The river Piave passes through the province while the rivers Sile and Cagnan pass through the capital. The province's nickname is La Marca Trevigiana. It has a prosperous economy and is an important producer of wine. It encompasses an area of 750 square miles.

Palazzo Venezia palazzo in Rome, Italy

The Palazzo Venezia, formerly Palace of St. Mark, is a palazzo (palace) in central Rome, Italy, just north of the Capitoline Hill. The original structure of this great architectural complex consisted of a modest medieval house intended as the residence of the cardinals appointed to the church of San Marco. In 1469 it became a residential papal palace, having undergone a massive extension, and in 1564, Pope Pius IV, to win the sympathies of the Republic of Venice, gave the mansion to the Venetian embassy to Rome on the terms that part of the building would be kept as a residence for the cardinals, the Apartment Cibo, and that the republic would provide for the building's maintenance and future restoration. The palace faces Piazza Venezia and Via del Plebiscito. It currently houses the National Museum of the Palazzo Venezia.

Corfu (city) Place in Greece

Corfu or Kerkyra is a city and a former municipality on the island of Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality of Corfu island. It is the capital of the island and of the Corfu regional unit. The city also serves as a capital for the region of the Ionian Islands. The city is a major tourist attraction, and has played an important role since antiquity.

Piazza Venezia square in Rome, Italy

Piazza Venezia is the central hub of Rome, Italy, in which several thoroughfares intersect, including the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the Via del Corso. It takes its name from the Palazzo Venezia, built by the Venetian Cardinal, Pietro Barbo alongside the church of Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice. The Palazzo Venezia served as the embassy of the Republic of Venice in Rome.

Barbaro family patrician family of Venice

The Barbaro family was a patrician family of Venice. They were wealthy and influential and owned large estates in the Veneto above Treviso. Various members were noted as church leaders, diplomats, patrons of the arts, military commanders, philosophers, scholars, and scientists.

Novara Comune in Piedmont, Italy

Novara is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 104 284 inhabitants (1-1-2017), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin and from Genoa to Switzerland. Novara lies between the rivers Agogna and Terdoppio in northeastern Piedmont, 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Milan and 95 kilometres (59 mi) from Turin.

Cordignano Comune in Veneto, Italy

Cordignano is a town and comune with 7,020 inhabitants in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy.

Sappada Comune in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

Sappada is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Udine, in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Corfiot Italians

Corfiot Italians are a population from the Greek island of Corfu (Kerkyra) with ethnic and linguistic ties to the Republic of Venice. Their name was specifically established by Niccolò Tommaseo during the Italian Risorgimento. During the first half of the 20th century, Mussolini successfully used the Corfiot Italians as a pretext to occupy Corfu twice.

Fashion in Milan

The Italian city of Milan is recognised internationally as one of the world's most important fashion capitals, along with Paris, New York and London. It is additionally recognised as the main sartorial hub in the country, with Rome and Florence being other major centres.

Gardiki Castle, Corfu

Gardiki Castle is a 13th-century Byzantine castle on the southwestern coast of Corfu and the only surviving medieval fortress on the southern part of the island. It was built by a ruler of the Despotate of Epirus, and was one of three castles which defended the island before the Venetian era (1401–1797). The three castles formed a defensive triangle, with Gardiki guarding the island's south, Kassiopi Castle the northeast and Angelokastro the northwest

Old Fortress, Corfu geographical object

The Old Fortress of Corfu is a Venetian fortress in the city of Corfu. The fortress covers the promontory which initially contained the old town of Corfu that had emerged during Byzantine times.

References

Citations

  1. Lombardi 2011, p. 59.
  2. Davis & Marvin 2004, p. 65.
  3. Johnson 2011, p. 205.
  4. Plant 2002, p. 192.
  5. Belluno: Albergo delle Alpi.
  6. 1 2 Campana, Castoro & Sebastionutti 2011.
  7. Casol & Rossi 2011.
  8. Facaros & Pauls 2007, p. 243.
  9. DK Publishing 2012, p. 6.
  10. Chamberlin 2007, p. 271.
  11. Kindersley 2010, p. 494.

Sources