Piazza dei Signori is a city square in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. This piazza for centuries hosted official civic and government celebrations, while the larger squares of Piazza delle Erbe (herbs) and Piazza della Frutta (fruits) hosted commerce and public festive celebrations. The square is dominated by the famous Clock Tower.
The square arose in the fourteenth century with the demolition of an old district that stretched in front of the church of San Clemente, promoted by Ubertino from Carrara. The square was designed to give importance to the tower and access to Palace on the east side, that he was building. It became the scene of tournaments and courtship. According to tradition it was from the noblemen or signori Carrara that the square took its name.
The 14-century war between the Carrara and the Visconti damaged the square and surroundings buildings and is called the period "of Desolation". The arrival of Venetians rule restored the square as the fifth main civic area: for tournament play, the rides, the battles, the courtship, concerts and music festivals. Initially known as the "Square of Triumphs" and again "Piazza della Signoria". At parties for the patrons and official visitors the area was designed with the ephemeral architecture. On Shrove Tuesday a bull hunt was held. July 17 was the celebration to commemorate the reconquest of Padua in 1509. On May 9, 1848, the priest Alexander Gavazzi renamed the square, "Piazza Pius IX", to underscore anti-Austrian sentiment. It became "Piazza Unità d'Italy" after unification (1870) and then returned to the original name in the fascist era.
The medieval square was paved with brick laid in a herring-bone pattern, this was replaced in the eighteenth century by slabs of Euganean trachyte. Until 1785, there was a monumental well at the entrance to the square (now Via Nazario Sauro). It was adorned with marble columns and cannonballs. The well was sealed in 1785 as being unsightly. The real was then used to refine the well of Piazza delle Erbe, the rest was all sold with gain of 50 ducats. The square hosts the morning city market.
At the west end, the piazza is dominated by the Clock Tower, flanked by symmetrical buildings of Capitanio and Camerlenghi, buildings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in mannerist style. Two niches, hold the busts of Saint Prosdocimus and St. Anthony. Both are of Nanto stone and were walled up during the anticlerical period of the Napoleonic occupation. They were restored in the 1990s.
On the square to the left column Marciana (mid-eighteenth century,) is a monument composed of pieces from the church of San Marco. This includes the marble column and capital of the Roman era. which were found in 1764. The lion is the work (1870) Christmas Sanavio to replace the one destroyed by French troops in 1797. The flag flagpole has a marble base dating back to the sixteenth century with decorations in high relief. The marble panels on all four sides represent the cardinal virtues. It has stood here from the second half of the eighteenth century.
To the east is the ancient church of San Clemente flanked by medieval houses.
On the right it is placed a plaque commemorating the "serious and heinous crime committed by several cops", that occurred on February 15, 1722, against university students; the culprits were "condemned to the gallows of the gallows, the jail and the dark prison" as it reported in the slab.
'Concerns over the beautiful square, which is called the Signoria. This has stone floor cooked, serves for the theater of public shows of rides, and tournaments and is surrounded by towering factories and beautiful houses" (Angelo Portenari, Of Happiness of Padua, 1623)
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piazza dei Signori (Padua) . |
Coordinates: 45°24′28″N11°52′25″E / 45.407677°N 11.873476°E
Carrara is a city and comune in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres (62 mi) west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is Fortitudo mea in rota.
The Basilica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The most notable feature of the edifice is the loggia, which shows one of the first examples of what have come to be known as the Palladian window, designed by a young Andrea Palladio, whose work in architecture was to have a significant effect on the field during the Renaissance and later periods.
Piazza delle Erbe is a square in Verona, northern Italy. It was once the town's forum during the time of the Roman Empire.
Iglesias is a comune and city in the province of South Sardinia, Italy. It was co-capital of the province of Carbonia-Iglesias with Carbonia, and the province's second-largest community.
Monselice is a town and municipality (comune) located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region, in the province of Padua.
Piazza della Signoria is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.
Padua Cathedral, or Basilica Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and the cathedral located on the east end of Piazza Duomo, adjacent to the Bishop's palace, in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. The cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is the seat of the bishop of Padua. The church building, first erected as seat of a bishop of the diocese in the 4th century, has undergone major reconstructions over the centuries.
Piazza della Repubblica is a city square in Florence, Italy. It was originally the site of the city's forum; then of its old ghetto, which was swept away during the improvement works, or Risanamento, initiated during the brief period when Florence was the capital of a reunited Italy—work that also created the city's avenues and boulevards. At that time, the Loggia del Pesce from the Mercato Vecchio was also moved to Piazza Ciompi. The square's Giubbe Rosse cafe has long been a meeting place for famous artists and writers, notably those of Futurism.
Palazzo Maffei is a historical palace in Verona, northern Italy, on the north-western side of Piazza delle Erbe.
The Church of San Marco in San Girolamo is a baroque parish church in Vicenza, northern Italy, built in the 18th century by the Discalced Carmelites. It houses various artworks by artists of the early 18th century from Veneto. The sacristy preserves its original furniture of the same period.
The Abbey of Santa Giustina is a 10th-century Benedictine abbey complex located in front of the Prato della Valle in central Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. Adjacent to the former monastery is the basilica church of Santa Giustina, initially built in the 6th century, but whose present form derives from a 17th-century reconstruction.
Piazza Pretoria, also known as square of Shame, is at the limits of the district of Kalsa, near the corner of Cassaro with Via Maqueda, just a few meters from the Quattro Canti, the intersection where all the four ancient quarters intersect, in the city of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy.
Liston is a Venetian word used in various cities of the Veneto region and former possessions of the former Republic of Venice. It us used 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".
Piazza delle Erbe is one of the many squares in the historic center of Padua. For centuries, with Piazza della Frutta, it was the commercial center of the city. In the two squares is one of the largest markets in Italy. Unlike Piazza dei Signori, the civic theater of celebrations, Piazza delle Erbe was the site of the folk festivities. The square is dominated by the imposing Palazzo della Ragione.
San Clemente, or St Clement, is a Baroque-style Roman Catholic church that overlooks the Piazza dei Signori in Padua, Italy. It is currently a dependent of the Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta.
Santa Maria dei Servi, or simply known as the Chiesa dei Servi, or more fully as the Church of the Nativity of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a 14th-century, Roman Catholic church that faces the Via Roma in Padua, region of the Veneto, Italy. This is the parish church in the vicariate of the Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta governed by the Servite Order. The church contains outstanding works of art including a wooden crucifix by Donatello.
The church dedicated to saint Francis of Assisi, known for centuries as San Francesco Grande is a religious building on the Via San Francesco, previously overlooks the Contra porteghi high in Padua, Italy. Through the efforts of Baldo de Bonafarii and Sibilla de Cetto, the convent of the Friars Minor and the Hospital of Saint Francis, Major, operated until 1798.
The Fontana or Fontanone di Ponte Sisto, once known as the Fontanone dei Cento Preti, is an early 17th-century, monumental fountain now located in Piazza Trilussa, facing the south end of the Ponte Sisto, in Trastevere, Rome, Italy. It was reconstructed here in the late 19th century, originally erected across the river, attached to the former building of the Collegio Ecclesiastico.
The Triumphal Arch of Vallaresso, or locally referred to as the Arco Vallaresso is a 17th-century monumental arch in the town center of Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. In 1632, the arch, designed by Giambattista della Scala, was meant to honor Alvise Vallaresso, Venetian captain of the town, for his diligence in attempting to stem the Bubonic plague in Padua.