Communal Palaces and Public Markets in Veneto cities of the Ancient Regime

This contribution aims to focus on two different aspects. The first one is the strong interaction between urban spaces with a mercantile destination and civic architecture. Considering the way through which they developed, it is possible to discover how they defined the form of entire areas. The second goal is to demonstrate how specific these dynamics are to the Veneto region. By studying different cases, a slow and constant movement emerges, affecting buildings and spaces and involving streets, squares and workshops. Among them, there are the spaces assiduously frequented by women and men on market days. In the following pages we would like to show how the focus on architecture does not only concern large buildings, such as communal palaces, but also the artifacts and spaces that surround them, and mainly those of the market. These as-pects are evident in the documentation collected, particularly in the descriptions and drawings outlined during the modern age for the purpose of mapping, and thus defin-ing, central urban spaces with their boundaries and characteristics. Ready to incorpo-rate the changes made from time to time, these drawings attest aspects of daily life, highlighting the continuous movement in the squares. Here the large polyfunctional buildings, like those “della Ragione”, are seen as dynamic structures, at the centre of many activities allocated “in and between” the urban fabric.

Keywords: Communal Palaces, Market Spaces, Urban Fabric, Historic Cartography, Venetian State Public Buildings, Central Urban Squares.

Elena Svalduz, Palazzi comunali e mercati pubblici nelle città venete d’antico regime in "STORIA URBANA " 180/2025, pp 62-80, DOI: 10.3280/SU2025-180005