Piazza del Mercato - Siena - Tuscany

Piazza del Mercato is one of the most important - but least known - squares in Siena and stands behind Piazza del Campo, past the Palazzo Pubblico.Piazza del Mercato is much older than the famous Piazza del Campo: in fact, when the former was already home to was from the city market and the Mint of the Sienese Republic, the second was still a reclaimed land with the sole purpose of draining the city water into the nearby valley.

The current shape of Piazza del Mercato is the classic rectangular one; while on the two long sides there are several buildings (including the theatre, the short ones give one on the rear facade of the Palazzo Pubblico, while the other on the valley where the waters of Piazza del Campo flowed.

In the center of the widening, which is used along the sides as a parking lot for cars, is the awning of the market, a nineteenth-century reconstruction of the previous one. It consists of a wooden roof and tiles supported by large brick pillars.

Willem Vandenameele