Masarykovo náměstí from Nový Jičín, Czech Republic

From its highly regulated structure, it appears that this town was founded at the end of the 13th century, most likely from nothing, on the grounds of a barren field. Its square, with its nearly even sides, includes buildings with very different styles. It has been deemed the most beautiful square north of the Alps, and is surrounded on all sides by arches, constructed in 1503 after a great fire destroyed the older, mostly wooden houses. The purpose of the arches was to provide shelter for trading stands, and to connect to the entrance of the mazhaus, as the large rooms on the ground floor were called. Other fires affected the square in 1768 and 1773, so that the façades were rebuilt in Historicist and Neo-Classical styles in the 19th century. At the centre of the square is a splendid plague column, erected to commemorate the plague of 1680. There is also a statue of Saint Nicholas, protector both of children and trade, and a fountain called “the fountain of time,” for the water’s movements are synchronous with the clock in the City Hall. Nový Jičín features the oldest hat factory in Europe, and one of the buildings in the square houses a museum dedicated to this history. 

Piazza Grande from Palmanova, Italy

Palmanova was built in 1593 as a military town, a star fort intended for the defence of Venice. The town knew fighting only once in its history, when Venice fought in the Grandisca War against Austria. Its structure, developed by Scamozzi, has remained unchanged to this day. 

Although its basic shape is a polygon with nine sides, its central square has six sides, each one directly linked to the entries of the fort. The square could be isolated and defended by barricading the six arteries leading into it. However, this never proved necessary.

Praça de D. Pedro IV from Lisbon, Portugal

Although its official name is Praça de D. Pedro IV, this square is known by locals as Rossio. A site where important historical events have taken place, since medieval times it has been considered the heart of Lisbon. Around 1450, Paço dos Estaus was built on the northern side of the square, on the grounds of the existing theatre. The palace was originally used for hosting foreign dignitaries. It then became a seat of the Inquisition, and, as a result, Rossio was for many years a place of public executions. Its current look is largely due to its renovations planned by the Marquise of Pombal after the earthquake of 1755, coordinated by architects Eugénio dos Santos and Carlos Mardel. Its splendid pavement, a typical Portuguese mosaic, dates from the 19th century. A statue of King Pedro IV stands atop the central column, built in 1874, giving the square its official name.


Piața Cetății from Alba Iulia, Romania

Alba Iulia has the largest Vauban-style fortress in southeastern Europe. It was built between 1716 and 1735 on the site where a medieval citadel and a Roman castrum once stood. Designed by the Italian architect Giovanni Morando Visconti and approved by Eugene of Savoy, the fortress has six triumphal gates and seven bastions. At the exact geometrical centre of the star, it has a large quadrilateral square, typical of Vauban-style fortresses.

Piața Mare and Piața Mică from Sibiu, Romania

Called Großer Ring in German, Piața Mare was first mentioned in the 14th century. It served as a stage for main events but also as a site for public executions. The square contained, in typical central European style, a statue of Roland; a cage for the insane; and a column of St. John Nepomouk, which today stands in the courtyard of the Catholic church. Piața Mică, or the Small Ring, initially lay outside the town’s walls, and owes its existence to Sibiu’s second fortification. The houses built during that period followed the circular path of the old defence walls, which explains why the buildings in this square have a circular shape. The arches on the ground floor hosted shops belonging to the local guilds.

Plaza Mayor from Valladolid, Spain

One of the largest in Spain, the Plaza Mayor in Valladolid has a perfectly rectangular shape, with a length of 122 meters and a width of 82 meters, establishing a 3 x 2 proportion. It is the first square of its type built in Spain, closed and with a regular plan. It will serve as the model for the central square in Madrid, built in 1617, and for the one in Salamanca, built in 1729, where the Valladolid architectural and urban pattern reaches its perfection. A long series of squares in Spain and South America are inspired by these latter two, thus indirectly pointing to the square in Valladolid.On the 21st of September 1561, a widespread fire engulfs Valladolid and burns for three days. The disaster is nonetheless a chance for applying new urban ideas. The project of the new square follows the principles of Renaissance balance and symmetry. The square is thought as a closed, rectangular space, completely hollow in the middle, with entrances through porticoes. The architect Francisco de Salamanca projects identical, mirror façades. Behind them there are living spaces for the functionaries and the members of the guilds. On the ground floor, all around the square, one finds a colonnade.

Am Markt from Wismar, Germany

Wismar, a Baltic Sea port, flourishes during the 18th and 19th centuries as part of the Hanseatic League. With a size of 10,000 square meters, Am Markt, the city’s main square, is one of the largest and most beautiful in northern Germany. The buildings show a wide variety of styles, from 14th century red brick houses – typical for the late northern Gothic – to the neoclassical façades or the early 20th century Art Nouveau. The central point of the square is Wasserkunst, a fountain with a rich metal decoration brought from the Netherlands in 1602. The viewer may also be impressed by one of the red brick patrician houses, called Alter Schwede, which dates from 1380 and is one of the oldest of its kind.

Baščaršija from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Baščaršija dates back to the 15th century, when İshakoğlu İsa Bey, the Turkish governor of Bosnia, builds Sarajevo. In keeping with the Oriental urban tradition, the cities have no square but a bazaar- this is what Baščaršija means and it was the commercial, administrative and cultural heart of the place. Here, mosques were built, along with shops, a library, a clock tower, inns. When the city becomes part of Austro-Hungary in 1878, the new rulers desire its transformation into a European city. A fire helps with the architects’ plans and the central space of the bazaar, dominated by a minaret in the 16th century, becomes a square. Today, it is unofficially known as “Dove square”.

Alter Markt and Neuer Markt from Stralsund, Germany

The Old Square and the New Square lie on different margins of the town, almost symmetrically positioned in relation to the geographical centre, which is completely atypical for the Middle Ages. Despite their name, the dates when they were built are probably not far apart. Alter Markt is first recorded in 1277, when a document calls it a forum, while Neuer Markt is recorded less than a decade later, in 1285. The old square has always had a main role, but the two are similar in many respects, whether through shape, surface, and even function. Isolated among the waters, with red brick Gothic churches, Stralsund is a splendid medieval, Hanseatic town on the Baltic Sea.

Am Markt from Schwerin, Germany

Schwerin’s Am Markt is the very definition of a square. A quadrangle with almost equal sides in the geographical centre of the city, it has held this central spot since the beginning, bringing together all the important buildings, from the cathedral to the city hall, dominated from a distance by a fairy-tale like castle. Strict trading rules, dating back to the time of Henry the Lion, have governed the square so that the city might enjoy economic growth. Every kind of trade had a well-defined place. For instance, fish could only be sold on the northeast side of the square. Butchers had to have covered stands. Only local traders and craftsmen were allowed to trade their wares in the market. After 1171, foreign merchants were allowed in the city on a specific day of the year.

Markt from Naarden, Netherlands

There is nothing spectacular about the Naarden square. It is an irregular, not particularly large space, unfolding around Grote Kerk, a red brick church built in the northern Gothic style of the 15th century, dedicated to St. Vitius before the Protestant Reformation. Nevertheless, this church is among the oldest in the Netherlands, surviving a fire after the Spanish invasion of 1557. In the square, to one side of the church, lies the statue of Comenius, who was born in Naarden. At one corner of the square there is a Renaissance-style city hall, decorated with allegorical human figures. Even if this square is nothing special, as a whole it is spectacular. Markt is the centre of a star-shaped fort, surrounded by a double row of water ditches.

Marktplein de Hof from Amersfoort, Netherlands

This city maintains the traces of successive borders. The walls surrounding the centre were torn down in the 15th century, but their original positions can still be seen, marked by the “muurhuizen”, the clay wall-houses. Linear suburbs have grown outside the old city, along the main roads. In time, the spaces between these and the city were filled up, and the city itself expanded even further, beyond the highway. At the centre stands the square, Marktplein de Hof.

Trg Luža and Gundulićeva poljana from Dubrovnik, Croatia

Trg Luža, the large square in Dubrovnik, lies at the end of the largest artery crossing the citadel from west to east, called Stradun or Placa. Each extremity represents a point of entry into the citadel, marked by a gate and a square. This structure, clearly visible in an aerial photograph, is linked to the way the city was once built. Ten centuries ago, Stradun’s current path was a canal separating the old Greco-Roman colony Ragusa, which was established on an island, from Dubrva, the settlement of the continental Slavs. In the 11th century, the canal was silted and the two communities became one, although their rivalry and mutual contempt would never disappear. A century later, they were still found within the same walls. In accordance with the classic plan of the process of synoecism, the main square was shaped at the geographical contact point between the two communities. Thus, Trg Luža was born and this was also the place where the most important historical buildings would be: Orlando’s statue, the Palace of the Rector, the Sponza Palace, the Clock Tower, Onufri’s small well. The well’s street unites Luža square with the second most important market, Gundulićeva Poljana, which was built much later, after the earthquake of 1667. Although planned separately, the two squares make up a system.