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Place des Vosges

Architect Louis Mtezeau dateHenri IV 1605 styleFrench Renaissance constructionmasonry type

The Pavillion de la Reine at Place des Vosges

The Place des Vosges is Paris's oldest square. It is located in le Marais, and is part of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it was the first program of royal city planning, built on the site of the Htel des Tournelles and its gardens. At a tournament at the Tournelles, a royal residence, Henri II was wounded and died. Catherine de Medicis had the Gothic pile demolished and moved to the Louvre. Arcades at Place des Vosges The Place des Vosges is the prototype of all the residential squares of European cities that were to come. What was new about the Place Royale in 1612 was that the housefronts were all built to the same design, probably by Baptiste du Cerceau, of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted arcades that stand on square pillars. Only the north range was built with the vaulted ceilings that the "galleries" were meant to have. Two pavilions that rise higher than the unified

roofline of the square center the north and south faces and offer access to the square through triple arches. Though they are designated the Pavilion of the King and of the Queen, no royal personnage has ever lived in the aristocratic square. The Place des Vosges and subsequent developments of Paris created a suitable urban background for the French aristocracy. Before the square was completed Henri ordered the Place Dauphine to be laid out. Within a mere five-year period the king oversaw an unmatched building scheme for the ravaged medieval city: additions to the Louvre, the Pont Neuf, and the Hpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares. Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII erected in the center (there were no garden plots until 1680). The original was melted down in the Revolution; the present version was replaced in 1818. The square was renamed in 1799 when the dpartement of the Vosges became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army. The Restauration returned the old royal name, but the Commune of 1870 restored the revolutionary one. Today the square is planted with clipped lindens (lime trees) set in grass and gravel.

Plaza Sienna

As we approached Siena from the south we could see the Torre del Mangia (the Siena town-hall tower), and the skyline of the city, from miles away. To help you understand Siena: the Piazza del Campo is incredible; the Torre del Mangia is astonishing; the Palio delle Contrade is phenomenal; the Sienas Duomo is remarkable; the streets are exhilarating. The Piazza del Campo, Sienas civic center, must be the most outstanding city square in Europe. Its best to come upon the Campo suddenly, to be swept at once into its elegant beauty. Eleven streets lead into the sea shell, or fan-shaped plaza, and it slopes down toward Palazzo Pubblico, Sienas city hall with its attractive tall, thin tower, Torre del Mangia.

The fairest tower in Italy has borne witness to six centuries of Sienas history. Like no tower in the world, a graceful flight of fancy caught in brick and stone, Torre del Mangia soars above the Palazzo Pubblico, in Sienas Piazza del Campo. Information signs at the ticket booth, telling about the 412 steps we had to climb, had been translated and handprinted into 65 different languages and both the climb, and the view from the top, are impeccable.

As we rambled through this fascinating city we were amazed to see streets so narrow and buildings so tall, there are places where the sun never shines. We remember a young lady in the uniform of the Post Office, who turned off the engine on her little Post Office motor scooter and coasted down a long, long, Siena street. Siena takes work to see, but its worth the effort. We must park on the edge of town, then walk. Twice we parked the RV in near-downtown parking lots, and twice we went to the campsite first, then rode the city bus to a plaza near the city center.

Place Vendome

Place Vendme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris and is located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the glise de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the corners give the rectangular Place Vendme the aspect of an octagon. The Place Vendme Column at the center was erected by Napoleon to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz. At the centers of the square's long sides, Mansart's range of Corinthian pilasters breaks forward under a pediment, to create palace-like fronts. The arcading of the formally rusticated ground floors does not provide an arcaded passageway as at Place des Vosges. The architectural linking of the windows from one floor to the next, and the increasing arch of their windowheads, provide an upward spring to the horizontals formed by ranks

of windows. Originally the Place was accessible by a single street and preserved an aristocratic quiet, except when the annual fair was held there. Then Napolon opened the Rue de la Paix, and the 20th century filled the Place Vendme with traffic. The Place Vendme has been famous for its fashionable and deluxe hotels: The Htel Ritz Paris, which is frequently just called "the Ritz", the Park Hyatt Vendme, and the Bristol, which Edward VII preferred, now called the Vendme. Many famous dress designers have had their salons in the square. Since 1718, the Ministry of Justice, also known as the "Chancellerie", is located at the Hotel de Bourvallais located at numbers 11 and 13. Right on the other side of the Place, number 14 houses the Paris office of JP Morgan, the investment bank.

Plaza Real Barcelona

April 26, 2007 Alfonso Valenzuela-Aguilera On April, 26 2007, the Onassis Foundation Scholars Association organized a lecture by Professor Alfonso Valenzuela-Aguilera of the Universidad Nacional Autnomade Mxico and visiting scholar of the University of California at Bekeley (Institute of Urban and Regional Development) on The Invention of Heritage: Recent urban interventions in Europe and Latin America the ceremonies' hall of the Athens Foundation.

The Invention of Heritage: Recent urban interventions in Europe and

Latin America The contemporary city is going through a process of functional specialization aiming at becoming more competitive within the market system, for which the full development of new centralities is mandatory in order to reactivate the economic tissue and guarantee social cohesion. Urban centralities represent strategic landmarks on the territory, which should be regarded as a major component of the global policies of the cities. These centers embrace the essential cultural elements to be used as a starting point for the strategies of urban revitalization design, as well as for the conception of specific instruments such as programs and regulations, in order to attain the preservation of the built environment. There are some remarkable examples of plans and programs for the recovery of centrality, such as the Politique de la Ville in Paris, the new Piano delle Certezze to be implemented in Rome, and the Ciutat Vella program for the city of Barcelona, where specific strategies were designed to permit the recuperation of the urban centralities of the historic inner city areas, both preserving and empowering the community in the process. The present paper aims to assess the strategies developed for the aforementioned cases, as well as the key role of the community in the design, promotion, and operation of the plans and programs, from which valuable guidelines and lessons will be extracted concerning the recovery of the patrimonial value of the inner city urban structures. Eve n tho ugh the stra tegi es of revi tali zati on Left: Ciutat Vella and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona of Right: Housing rehabilitation and public spaces the inn er city are by no means new, there is some recent evidence that they have been considered to be representative of smart growth or within the strategies of urban competitiveness that aim to place the assets of a city within the global market of investments. Nevertheless, these strategies tend to privilege the economic reactivation of specific areas, leaving behind the creation of jobs, the participation of the residents in the formulation of the priorities of the project, as well as the mechanisms to create or enhance a

sense of community. Contemporary cities are immersed in processes of macroeconomic globalization, in which the location of investments is a decisive factor for the future development of the metropolitan areas. Under this approach, the main goal for the local administration would be to program a limited number of strategic objectives, towards which the financial, technical and administrative conditions would be oriented in order to accomplish the economic strategy of the city. Nevertheless, this seemingly vicious circle of plans and programs that reach goals and objectives of a strategic nature is at the same time generating dual processes, in which the economic, social and urban differentiation comes close to the polarization of a shared reality. Since the publication of Michael Porters controversial article on the competitive advantages of the inner city, the academic debate has no longer been centered on the convenience of redeveloping the inner city, but rather on the social dimensions of the operation. Without the intention of ignoring the economic advantages of taking an entrepreneurial approach as a platform for the development of the city, it is essential to introduce social, political, economic and environmental components into urban policies and strategies, in order to encourage residents and institutions to participate as main actors, who, after all, will be those that will sustain and shape the general initiatives. Due to the configuration and compact structure characterizing great parts of the European cities, it is not surprising that there exist some interesting examples of urban interventions concerned with the inherent complexity implied by the redevelopment of inner city areas as an alternative to the prevailing sprawl schemes. It can be suggested that in the vast majority of cases, it has become evident that the economic reactivation is not enough to sustain the social structure, especially when inherent differences, fractures, and discontinuities within the territory are generated, which prevents the construction of firm foundations to guarantee a sustainable development of the cities. Moreover, the economic dimension that the urban planning entails is necessarily echoed in the concentration of resources, infrastructure and services on specific points in the territory, leaving vast areas of nonstrategic land behind the general development scheme. It can be claimed that sustainability is becoming a priority within the urban development strategies, as a means to anticipate and prevent social conflicts in the near future. The consideration of the social dimension as a point of departure for the urban policy-making has become the axis of the instrumentation of strategies in such countries as France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, where, without missing the new parameters of urban competitiveness, questions of integration and sustainability are considered in order to avoid economic polarization and which promote the creation and strengthening of centralities, as well as the creation of a sense of communitarian identity.

The strategies of consolidation, infill housing, and urban recycling, and building the city within the city, are among the most innovative initiatives to have appeared over the last years, and include redevelopment projects for vacant land, as well as the redensification of Plaza Real, Barcelona the existing urban tissue. The strategies in both cases aim to serve as an alternative to the sprawl patterns mentioned above, as well as embody an instrument for the local governments to draw the middle-class into the inner city, expand its base of contributors, and support social housing in central areas. Nevertheless, in order to accomplish these goals, it is often necessary to deal with the existence of contradictory policies, which limit the operative feasibility of the interventions, since the objectives of equity and efficiency do not always match the dynamics of the real estate market. In the following sections, three recent cases will be assessed, in which a comprehensive and inclusive approach has been used for the regeneration of the inner city: The Piano delle Certezze of Rome, the program Ciutat Vella of Barcelona, and the Politique de la Ville in Paris. Although it is important to emphasize the integral character of their programming, we will comment on the strategy as a whole in order to get to the core of the problems faced, which will then be analyzed and evaluated. Barcelona: Ciutat Vella Program The city of Barcelona launched a large-scale program of integral renovation of the central district of Ciutat Vella by means of a comprehensive process of urban, economic and social regeneration, which revealed a strong commitment to a model of inner city totally integrated with the urban tissue, maintaining the residential land use and privileging the quality of urban life. The district of Ciutat Vella includes the Gothic, Raval, Casc Antic and Barceloneta districts, each one with its own processes and specificities. The districts had fallen into decline over the last years, economic activities had been restricted, and the urban environment reflected the abandonment and lack of investment in the built environment. It is important to note the dimensions of the physical conditions of the built environment in Barcelona

at the time: almost three quarters of the fifty thousand houses constituting it were constructed before 1900, and among them seven thousand houses did not have a bathroom; moreover, the provision of amenities and public spaces was not much better. Following the decentralizing tendency of the eighties, the regional and local governments promoted the designation of Ciutat Vella as Area de Rehabilitacin Integral (ARI) in 1986, having as a central objective the maintenance of the complexity of the urban system, through the mixture of uses and the diversity of users. It was also a major goal to strengthen the local identity of the historic center and to be consistent with the principles of sustainability and lowenergy consumption. Moreover, the participation of a wide range of social actors throughout the Rambla del Mar, Port Vell, Barcelona (before process guaranteed the and after) continuity of the program, avoiding, as far as possible, the conflicts of interests. The program permitted, among other things, the creation of the corporation Promoci Ciutat Vella S.A. (PROCIVECSA) in 1988, as an independent unit to manage the urban transformation. The corporation started to operate as a joint-venture company of mixed capital (which, nevertheless, was mainly municipal), and had as its main tasks to provide about twenty-five thousand square meters of new spaces, promote new housing by using both public and private capital, reactivate the local economy and rehabilitate the existing public spaces. For example, in the district of Raval, a considerable number of degraded buildings were demolished in order to create the new Plaza central de Raval, a square where the creation of a cultural pole including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cultural Center of Catalonia was also considered. An important methodological element existed at the level of management, which allowed the coordinated accomplishment of the

project. It is based on four points: Firstly, the program took advantage of the administrative decentralization policies of the eighties, and the city was structured into urban districts, where Ciutat Vella played a prime role within the strategy. The second element is one of operative nature, and consists in the decision to carry out the interventions in a short period of time, in order to effectively change the progressive degrading tendency of the district. Thirdly, as a product of the aforementioned intensive action plan, a combination of urban renovation with economic promotion and social welfare was implemented. A fourth element within the definition of the project was that associations of residents participated and intervened in the decision-making processes. The program assumes its main axes of action through six thematic plans: urbanism, housing, mobility, economic revitalization, cultural and social promotion, and security. The physical renovation is orchestrated by means of the Planes Especiales de Reestructuraccin Interna (PERI), which required the participation of the residents to define the renovation criteria, as well as the redefinition of uses in areas within a limited extent. With the intention of endorsing the rehabilitation of privately-owned buildings, the Office of Rehabilitation of Ciutat Vella was created in 1990 (ORCV), its mission being to inform and advise individuals about rehabilitation schemes, as well as to administer the resources assigned to this program. The works included the rehabilitation of the houses as well as the common areas; as a result of its operation, about 17,000 houses were rehabilitated with an average cost of 842,340 pesetas (4,000 USD), and 10,800 pesetas per square meter (50 USD). The impact of such a large-scale and complex plan as that of Ciutat Vella is by no means easy to evaluate. Nevertheless, the public sector was in charge of the conceptualization and promotion of the project (more than eighty billion pesetas), which permitted the private investors to participate in the initiatives and, moreover, to start shaping the socioeconomic consolidation of the historic center. In evaluating the improvement of the urban quality of life, it can be concluded from the actions undertaken in terms of new housing, urban amenities and public spaces that the general trend has been upward, without generating extreme processes of gentrification, and has even come to generate a renovation tendency from the proprietors of old housing. With regard to citizen participation, although variations in the different stages from the project may always exist, it is possible to affirm that the city is more vital, and its public spaces more often used, after the interventions. The transformation of the Ciutat Vella has caused important qualitative changes in the urban quality of the city, and has triggered an economic revitalization, despite the fact that it has also affected the real estate market. Therefore, it is suggested that the change of population derived from the regeneration program in Barcelona can be regarded as a product of the centrality generated by the numerous educational and cultural amenities attracting young professionals, students and artists who are migrating into the rehabilitated houses with the

consequent lost of social diversity. Paris: La Politique de la Ville The Politique de la Ville represents a set of specific policies for the city that started during the eighties to designate the ensemble of practices, proceedings and measures aimed to attend the Slide-show during Dr. Valenzuelas lecture problematic of the high priority districts. Even though these areas were defined with statistical criteria, the policies were oriented so as to reach a concerted and progressive solution to the social, economic and urban difficulties of the citizens. The policies of urban renovation that accomplished the disarticulation of the different sectors within the city set off a total rupture with the urban context. They also generated a traumatic effect from the aesthetic and urban perspectives, and, moreover, the State handled the housing interventions through large national organizations, which prevented the municipalities from controlling the urban development of their jurisdiction. As a result of the decentralization policies in the seventies, the Oprations Programes pour lAmlioration de lHabitat (OPAH) were established, which, over the last twenty years, have realized interventions in more than six hundred thousand buildings, as well as rehabilitations of vacant houses and qualitative improvement of urban amenities and public spaces. Having a strong social component, the program is articulated in different instruments that, within a general framework, could program their actions in specific ways. In their twenty years of operation, the OPAH have maintained a social objective, since they have regarded regard the degradation of the habitat as one of the main causes of the segregation. Different evaluations have been made about the OPAH program in recent years, among which we can highlight the fact that the policy has stressed the human dimension of housing, trying to be more persuasive than authoritarian, as well as the fact that it has served as an alternative to the large urban renovation projects as the only instrument of transforming the city. What is remarkable about this policy is that never before had the private owners become the engines of transformation by means of a socially-oriented scheme of intervention. Thanks to the mobilization of human and financial resources, the OPAH have been able to promote neighborhood-scale integral projects, focusing on preliminary

studies, on the project rather than the procedures, as well as on the followup of the operations. The success of a great part of the interventions is based on the social organization of the community, a considerably wider approach than just securing the lodging, and the tailor-made instruments and procedures. Regarding the social link with the community, the participation of the National Federation of Centers PACT-ARIM has been decisive in all the stages of the rehabilitation process and the recycling of districts, thus becoming the first operator of the program all over the country. On the oth er han d, the cre atio n of the OP Left: Piazza San Pietro (San Peters Square), Rome AH Right: Ancient bakery in Trastevere borough, Rome mat che s the release of the Fonds dAmnagement Urbain (FAU), which also allowed, by means of its multiple credit lines, to synchronize the financial, social and urban aspects of the rehabilitation. These resources were part of the initiatives of decentralization of the State, in which it was decided to support the cities in being in charge of the complementary actions for housing, such as the creation of urban amenities and public spaces. Other concurrent financings for the improvement of the habitat were addressed to the privately-owned houses as well as rental housing. In the first case, the State decided to supply up to 50% of the renovation works, according to the income level of the applicant, and, in the second case, to ensure the benefit from a subvention of the ANAH with the condition of maintaining the building in rent during the following ten years (that is to say, without sale possibility), as well as to establish a maximum level of rent increase, thus accomplishing the generation of a large supply of housing at reasonable prices. Through the OPAH program, the rehabilitation of the built environment was implemented in a significant way: in its twenty years of operation, three thousand operations have been realized, which include about 600,000 house interventions; nevertheless, at the present time, the challenge would be to establish parallel financial procedures aiming to promote the creation of urban amenities and public spaces, and foster social diversity.

Rome: The Piano delle Certezze Italy has a long tradition in the development of instruments of intervention within the urban fabric of the inner city. A further complexity is added, if one considers the significance of the urban and architectural Left: Green environmental design in the Piano delle heritage of most of Certezze its cities. The Right: Houses in Trastevere borough debates about the kind, scale and suitable instruments of intervention are, therefore, not new within the urban and social arena: they have been taking place ever since the first specific plans and programs were established. As the intervention scale changes from the focal building to renovate to the definition of the poligoni dattuazione (in which urban environments are defined as primary intervention units), the approach of the policies starts to be centered on the preservation of physical structures that support the various activities within the city. Nevertheless, since the sixties and the seventies, the inclusion of the social dimension within the planning process has become essential, and the local residents have become significant actors with a decisive participation in the creation of strategies for urban development. The inclusion of different dimensions and subtle details within the urban planning is aimed towards the revaluation of the physical and environmental quality of the territory within an integral and complex perspective, where new definitions of the compact city, urban sustainability, and comprehensive strategies start to get shaped. As a product of a new generation of master plans, the Piano delle Certezze (or plan of certainties) arose: after a painstaking revision, which took several years, it was eventually approved by the Communal Council in November 2000. The Piano delle Certezze (PDC) is a general variant of the effective Piano Regolatore of 1965, and arose as a frame of reliable and safe reference for the short and medium term, from which other regulating and strategic plans can be developed following its guidelines. Due to the specificity of the subject discussed in the present paper, we will briefly mention the different dimensions contained in the plan

(environmental, administrative, constructive, etc.), in order to concentrate on the strategies related to the inner city, which can be summarized as follows: the new definition of the compact city, the programs of urban regeneration, and the initiatives aimed to revitalize the inner city. Consistent with the theoretical tradition of the plans that preceded it, the PDC examines the predisposition of adopting the prevailing strategic planning, which does not consider the urban dimension inherent to middle- and longrange plans. It also argues that even if the transformation of the economic base of the cities is imminent and required, this has led the strategies to the means of conquering hegemonic spaces and roles within the territorial hierarchy at world-wide level, being based on a philosophy of competitiveness. Therefore, the PDC assumes a critical position in relation to urban plans that end up becoming mere plans of economic strategy for the city. Although strategic planning has served as an instrument for the local governments to negotiate private investments, and reach specific economic objectives, it is also true that it has generated an economic, social and urban dualism, as a result of the extreme elasticity that key decisions have experimented with. Therefore, the creation of a general framework that would establish the criteria for an urban, social and environmental compatibility became mandatory, as a prior condition to the goals of economic competitiveness, and as an organizational structure that would frame a major political project. In this context, the PDC arises like a structural kind of plan that would determine the invariants of the organization of the city, in which diffuse policies of urban regeneration could be assembled and coordinated in a comprehensive way. Therefore, the new Plan advocates, in the name of wider support and feasibility, the subordination of economic competitiveness goals to the definition of maximum operative efficiency in order to fulfill the objectives aimed to improve the daily life of the citizens. Under this approach, even though the public administration is actively trying to revitalize the existing urban dynamics, it is also committed to the stimulation of investments by the private sector in public infrastructure works that benefit a wider range of people. The PDC intends to render the objectives, times, rules, and procedures within a panorama of middle and long ranges, aiming to provide the entrepreneurial sector with a reliable framework to program its strategies with absolute confidence in its decisions. Another element of particular interest is the decision to organize the plan on the basis of urban tissues, leaving behind the traditional functional zoning, on condition that the interventions contribute to the enhancement of the qualities of a place through a concrete and visible project which would be evaluated by the community. Generally speaking, the PDC aims to delegate all the processes of promotion, evaluation and approval of diffuse policies, and even the executive projects themselves, to the local governments, with the intention of opening spaces for an active participation of the residents in the overall process.

One of the programmed actions that has had excellent results has been the launching of a program of improvement of the public space, denominated Centopiazze (one hundred squares), which, by combining diverse financial resources as well as by opening to international competitions of urban design, has managed to realize interventions in over a hundred spaces, while another 40 are in the process of construction, and yet another 70 are in charge of the Municipal Service of Gardens and Public Works. The redevelopment of the city within the city constitutes a policy that is shared by most European countries nowadays. Besides, it is being considered in the American continent as a feasible alternative to the problems caused by urban sprawl, automobile saturation, and disarticulation of the citys urban tissue. Alfonso Valenzuela-Aguilera

Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence

There are many facets to this appreciation of the ethical and accommodating qualities of urban form. Do I want a legible overall structure, convenient for resident and visitor? Do I want the city to allow that when in a given place I might easily find another place? Do I want architecture which has variety and an overall harmony? Do I want the buildings to have a degree of robustness and a degree of permeability, even ambiguity? Do I want them to sustain a variety of uses over time? Do I want them to sustain a variety of uses over time? Do I want them to contain usable public space rather than to repel it? Do I want the building's functions, public or private, governmental or institutional, religious, secular, commercial and charitable, resident and tourist-centred to encourage the casual meeting of different races and classes? Do I want the whole to be made with and ornamented by the highest quality of design, materials, innovative techniques and expressions? Do I want it to contain ritual and social functions with equal grace? Do I want Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence? The answer to all these questions is yes. It is, of course, the type of space which Sitte so admired. In its elegant and comprehensible form this space holds in microcosm many aspects of the city as a whole, both this specific city and the generality of cities. The longevity of such space, serene when in use or when abandoned, should also appeal to the desire to create a familiar environment, to develop a sustainable city, and to encourage cooperation and participation. La Plaza de San Marcos es la nica[1] plaza de Venecia, y su principal destino turstico, abundante en fotgrafos, turistas y palomas. Se atribuye a Napolen Bonaparte, aunque muy probablemente fue Alfred de Musset, el apodarla le plus lgant salon d'Europe (el saln ms bello de Europa). Tambin es el nico gran espacio urbano en una ciudad europea donde las voces de las personas se imponen sobre los sonidos del trfico motorizado, el cual es restringido a los canales de la ciudad. La Piazza se inici en el siglo IX como un rea pequea frente del la Baslica de San Marcos original. Fue extendida a su forma y tamao actual en 1177, cuando el Rio Batario, que la limitaba por el oeste, y un puerto que tenia aislado del Palacio Ducal de la plaza, se inundaron. La reestructuracin fue realizada para el encuentro del Papa Alejandro III y el Emperador Federico Barbarroja. La plaza ha sido siempre el centro de Venecia. Fue la ubicacin de todos los importantes de la Repblica de Venecia, y ha sido la base del arzobispado desde el siglo XIX. Fue el foco de muchos festivales y es un lugar sumamente popular en Italia incluso hoy en da.

Fue pavimentada a fines del siglo XIII con ladrillos en patrn herringbone (diagonales alternantes) con lineas que permitan organizar el mercado y las muy frecuentes procesiones ceremoniales. Luego en 1723 los ladrillos fueron reemplazados por un diseo geomtrico ms complejo compuesto por piedra volcnica oscura y patrones geomtricos en piedra blanca, a cargo del arquitecto veneciano Andrea Tirali, y oportunidad aprovechada para levantar la plaza aproximadamente en un metro. En 1890, el pavimento fue renovado debido al desgaste siguiendo un diseo similar al de Tirali, pero eliminados los valos y cortando la esquina del oeste para acomodarse mejor al Ala Napolenica al final de la plaza. La Plaza est dominada por la Baslica, el Palacio Ducal y el Campanario de la Baslica, que se erige a un lado de l. Los edificios alrededor de la plaza son, en sentido inverso al reloj desde el Gran Canal, el Palacio Ducal, la Baslica de San Marcos, la Torre del Reloj de San Marcos, la Procuradora Antigua, el Ala Napolenica, la Procuradora Nueva, el Campanario de San Marcos, Logetta y la Biblioteca Marciana. Gran parte la planta baja de las Procuradoras esta ocupada por cafeteras, incluyendo el Caff Florian y el Gran Caff Quadri. El Museo Correr y el Museo de Arqueologa estn ubicados en algunos edificios de la plaza. La Casa de Moneda yace tras la Biblioteca Marciana en la riva (orilla o banco) del Gran Canal. stas ltimas construcciones fueron completadas durante la ocupacin napolenica, aunque el Campanario has sido reconstruido.

La Plaza de San Pedro (Piazza San Pietro, en italiano), se encuentra situada en la Ciudad del Vaticano, dentro de la ciudad y capital italiana de Roma y precede, a modo de gran sala perptera, a la Baslica de San Pedro, el magno templo de la cristiandad. Fue enteramente proyectada por Gian Lorenzo Bernini entre 1656 y 1657.

A la plaza se accede desde la Via della Conciliazione y muestra, al fondo, la magnfica fachada de la Baslica de San Pedro; esta va comienza en el largo Giovanni XXIII, muy cerca del castillo de Sant'Angelo, junto al ro Tber, pasando al final por la plaza Po XII. La plaza es una gran explanada trapezoidal que se ensancha lateralmente mediante dos pasajes, con forma elptica, de columnatas rematadas en una balaustrada sobre la que se asientan las figuras de ciento cuarenta santos de diversas pocas y lugares; en su interior se encuentran dos fuentes hacia el centro de cada semi-elipse y en medio de la plaza se erigi un monumental obelisco (de 25 metros de alto y 327 toneladas), un bloque ptreo sin inscripciones trado desde Egipto que estaba en el centro de un circo romano. En 1586 el Papa Sixto V decidi colocarlo frente a la Baslica de San Pedro en memoria del martirio de San Pedro en el Circo de Nern. Se le conoce como el testigo mudo, pues junto a este se crucific a Pedro. La esfera de bronce de la cspide que, segn la leyenda medieval, contena los restos de Julio Csar, fue reemplazada por una reliquia de la cruz de Cristo. Los dos pasajes de columnas (284 de 16 metros cada una) se abren a cada lado simbolizando el abrazo de acogida de la Iglesia al visitante que parece invitan a entrar. En esta plaza, el Papa suele celebrar algunas liturgias solemnes (especialmente aquellas que renen a multitudes demasiado grandes como para que entren en la ya de por s inmensa baslica) y otros encuentros, sobre todo audiencias pblicas. La famosa Plaza de la Concordia en Pars es una copia de esta plaza ya que tanto el obelisco como las fuentes y su distribucin son idnticas a las de San Pedro.

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