The Rebirth of Sixteenth-Century Brescia: the Portico as a Principle of Urban Settlement and the Architectural Redefinition of Piazza Mercato

In Brescia, unlike what occurred in the 16th century in other areas of the Venetian Republic, it was the Municipality that developed a detailed plan dictating the reorgani-zation of the street system and the construction of new residential and commercial structures. Ludovico Beretta, the city’s architect from 1550 onward, demonstrated an undeniable ability to shape the urban fabric. Drawing on criteria of construction econ-omy – from the works in Piazza del Mercato and along Corso del Gambero to Strada Nuova – he established fresh and original relationships within a commendably coher-ent stylistic continuum. The article aims to specifically analyse the urban and architectural detailed plans designed and created by Ludovico Beretta using modular typological units – for Bres-cia and for the Piazza del Mercato in particular – but also to focus on the interventions carried out in the 15th century and 16th century by the Venetian Republic and by the municipal administration. The archival research has made it possible to date and locate the main spaces and the different structures that were used for commercial activities, in particular the area between the two new squares, the large one and the market one, and also to identify the different phases of formation of the so-called Garzetta stores built on the site of the pre-existing Visconti fortification.

Keywords: Portico, Square, MMarket, Ludovico Beretta, Rodolfo Vantini, Auction.

Massimo De Paoli, La rinascita della Brescia cinquecentesca: il portico come principio insediativo e la ridefinizione architettonica di piazza Mercato in "STORIA URBANA " 180/2025, pp 28-47, DOI: 10.3280/SU2025-180003