Discover Piazza delle Erbe

A long market square on the southern flank of Palazzo della Ragione, with the great hall's arcaded base forming one entire side of it and stalls set out along the open ground. The square sits a step below the arcade, so the market reads as a floor with a roofed edge rather than a space with a building on it.

The square is defined less by its own edges than by the enormous building along one side of it. The Palazzo della Ragione, begun in 1218, presents its long flank here, raised on an arcade and carrying above it one of the largest medieval halls in Europe with no internal columns supporting the roof.

Beneath that flank runs Sotto il Salone, the arcade at ground level, occupied continuously by butchers, cheesemongers and salumerie. It is the oldest surviving part of the market's fabric and functions as a covered extension of the square rather than a separate building.

The remaining sides are ordinary Paduan arcaded houses of several periods, their porticoes continuous with the city's wider network of covered walkways. The effect is a room rather than a plaza: enclosed on all sides, shaded at the edges, open in the middle.