A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true

geometric square Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...

, used for community gatherings. Related concepts are the civic center, the

market square The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a Town square, square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world.village green. Most squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. Being centrally located, town squares are usually surrounded by small shops such as bakeries,

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

markets,

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

stores, and clothing stores. At their center is often a well, monument,

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

or other feature. Those with fountains are sometimes called fountain squares.

By country

Australia

The city centre of Adelaide and the adjacent suburb of North Adelaide, in South Australia, were planned by Colonel William Light in 1837. The city streets were laid out in a

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...

, with the city centre including a central public square, Victoria Square, and four public squares in the centre of each quarter of the city. North Adelaide has two public squares. The city was also designed to be surrounded by park lands, and all of these features still exist today, with the squares maintained as mostly green spaces.

China

In Mainland China, People's Square is a common designation for the central town square of modern Chinese cities, established as part of urban modernization within the last few decades. These squares are the site of government buildings, museums and other public buildings. One such square, Tiananmen Square, is a famous site in Chinese history due to it being the site of the May Fourth Movement, the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China, the

1976 Tiananmen Incident The Tiananmen Incident () or the April 5 Tiananmen Incident was a mass gathering and protest that took place on 4–5 April 1976, at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The incident occurred on the traditional day of mourning, the Qingming F ...

, the

1989 Tiananmen Square Protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, and all Chinese National Day Parades.

Germany

The German word for square is ''Platz'', which also means "Place", and is a common term for central squares in German-speaking countries. These have been focal points of public life in towns and cities from the Middle Ages to today. Squares located opposite a Palace or Castle (german: Schloss) are commonly named Schlossplatz. Prominent ''Plätze'' include the

Alexanderplatz () ( en, Alexander Square) is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the nort ...

, Pariser Platz and Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Heldenplatz in Vienna, and the Königsplatz in Munich.

Italy

A piazza () is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. San Marco in Venice may be the world's best known. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish '' plaza''. In Ethiopia, it is used to refer to a part of a city. When the Earl of Bedford developed

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

– the first private-venture public square built in London – his architect

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

surrounded it with arcades, in the Italian fashion. Talk about the ''piazza'' was connected in Londoners' minds not with the square as a whole, but with the arcades. A piazza is commonly found at the meeting of two or more streets. Most Italian cities have several piazzas with streets radiating from the center. Shops and other small businesses are found on piazzas as it is an ideal place to set up a business. Many metro stations and bus stops are found on piazzas as they are key point in a city. In Britain, ''piazza'' now generally refers to a paved open pedestrian space, without grass or planting, often in front of a significant building or shops.

King's Cross station King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...

in London is to have a piazza as part of its redevelopment. The piazza will replace the existing 1970s concourse and allow the original 1850s façade to be seen again. There is a good example of a piazza in Scotswood at Newcastle College. In the United States, in the early 19th century, a ''piazza'' by further extension became a fanciful name for a colonnaded porch. Piazza was used by some, especially in the Boston area, to refer to a verandah or front porch of a house or apartment. A central square just off

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

's Main Street, between the Parliament Building and the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

officially named '' John Mackintosh Square'' is colloquially referred to as ''The Piazza''.

Indonesia

A large open square common in villages, towns and cities of Indonesia is known as '' alun-alun''. It is a Javanese term which in modern-day Indonesia refers to the two large open squares of kraton compounds. It is typically located adjacent a mosque or a palace. It is a place for public spectacles, court celebrations and general non-court entertainments.

Iran

In traditional Persian architecture, town squares are known as maydan or meydan. A maydan is considered one of the essential features in urban planning and they are often adjacent to bazaars, large mosques and other public buildings.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square Naqsh-e Jahan Square ( fa, میدان نقش جهان ''Maidān-e Naghsh-e Jahān''; trans: "Image of the World Square"), also known as the Shah Square (میدان شاه) prior to 1979, is a square situated at the center of Isfahan (city), Isfah ...

in Isfahan and Azadi Square in Tehran are examples of classic and modern squares.

The Netherlands and Belgium

In the Low Countries, squares are often called "markets" because of their usage as marketplaces. Most towns and cities in Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands have in their historical centre a (literally "Big Market") in Dutch or (literally "Grand Square") in French (for example the Grand-Place in Brussels and the Grote Markt in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

). The or is often the location of the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

, hence also the political centre of the town. The Dutch word for square is ''plein'', which is another common name for squares in Dutch-speaking regions (for example Het Plein in The Hague). In the 17th and 18th centuries, another type of square emerged, the so-called ''royal square'' (french: Place royale, link=no, nl, Koningsplein, link=no). Such squares did not serve as a marketplace but were built in front of large palaces or public buildings to emphasise their grandeur, as well as to accommodate military parades and ceremonies, among others (for example the Place Royale in Brussels and the Koningsplein in Amsterdam). Palace squares are usually more symmetrical than their older market counterparts.

Russia

In Russia, ''central square'' (russian: центра́льная пло́щадь, romanised: ''tsentráĺnaya plóshchad́'') is a common term for an open area in the heart of the town. In a number of cities, the square has no individual name and is officially designated ''Central Square'', for example Central Square (Tolyatti).

Spanish-speaking countries

The Spanish-language term for a public square is ( or depending on the dialectal variety). It comes from Latin , with the meaning of 'broad street' or 'public square'. Ultimately coming from Greek ''plateia (hodos)'', it is a cognate of Italian and French (which has also been borrowed into English). . The term is used across Spanish-speaking territories in Spain and the Americas, as well as in the Philippines. In addition to smaller plazas, the (sometimes called in the Americas as '' Plaza de Armas'', "armament square" where troops could be mustered) of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the ''cantabile'' or administrative center, which might be incorporated in a wing of a governor's

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

, and the or law court. The plaza might be large enough to serve as a military parade ground. At times of crisis or

fiesta ''Fiesta'' (Spanish for "religious feast", "festival", or "party") may refer to: Events *Fiesta San Antonio, a 10-day event held every April in San Antonio, Texas *St. Peter's Fiesta, a five-day festival in Gloucester, Massachusetts *Fiestas d ...

s, it serves as the gathering space for large crowds. Diminutives of include and the latter's double diminutive , which can be occasionally used as a particle in a proper noun. Like the Italian and the Portuguese , the plaza remains a center of community life that is only equaled by the market-place. A is a bullring.

Shopping center A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

s may incorporate 'plaza' into their names, and is used in some countries as a synonym for i.e. "shopping center".

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, and especially in London and Edinburgh, a "square" has a wider meaning. There are public squares of the type described above but the term is also used for formal open spaces surrounded by houses with private gardens at the centre, sometimes known as garden squares. Most of these were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. In some cases the gardens are now open to the public. See the Squares in London category. Additionally, many public squares were created in towns and cities across the UK as part of urban redevelopment following the Blitz. Squares can also be quite small and resemble courtyards, especially in the City of London. In London the most impressive example which does not incorporate gardens and which is surrounded by historic buildings is probably Trafalgar Square. In Halifax, the recently restored Piece Hall has been described as a piazza rivalling many in Europe.

United States

In some cities, especially in New England, the term "square" (as its Spanish equivalent, ''plaza'') is applied to a commercial area (like Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts), usually formed around the intersection of three or more streets, and which originally consisted of some open area (many of which have been filled in with traffic islands and other traffic calming features). Many of these intersections are irregular rather than square. The ''placita'' (Spanish for "little plaza"), as it is known in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, is a common feature within the boundaries of the former provincial kingdom of

Santa Fe de Nuevo México Santa Fe de Nuevo México ( en, Holy Faith of New Mexico; shortened as Nuevo México or Nuevo Méjico, and translated as New Mexico in English) was a Kingdom of the Spanish Empire and New Spain, and later a territory of independent Mexico. The ...

. They are a blend of

Hispano The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

and Pueblo design styles, several of which continue to be hubs for cities and towns in New Mexico, including Santa Fe Plaza, Old Town Albuquerque, Acoma Pueblo's plaza, Taos Downtown Historic District, Mesilla Plaza, Mora, and Las Vegas Plaza. In U.S. English, a plaza can mean one of several things: * a town square, as in the Spanish usage * "any open area usually located near urban buildings and often featuring walkways, trees and shrubs, places to sit, and sometimes shops" * a

shopping center A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

of any size * a toll plaza, where traffic must temporarily stop to pay tolls * an area adjacent to an expressway that has service facilities (such as restaurants, gas stations, and restrooms) Today's metropolitan landscapes often incorporate the plaza as a design element, or as an outcome of zoning regulations, building budgetary constraints, and the like. Sociologist

William H. Whyte William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte Jr. (July 11, 1917 – July 11, 1999) was an American urbanist, sociologist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher. He identified the elements that create vibrant public spaces within the city ...

conducted an extensive study of plazas in New York City: his study humanized the way modern urban plazas are conceptualized, and helped usher in significant design changes in the making of plazas. They can be used to open spaces for low-income neighborhoods, and can also the overall aesthetic of the surrounding area boosting economic vitality, pedestrian mobility and safety for pedestrians. Most plazas are created out of a collaboration between local non-profit applicants and city officials which requires approval from the city. Throughout North America, words like ''place'', ''square'', or ''plaza'' frequently appear in the names of commercial developments such as shopping centers and hotels.

References

External links

BBC.com: "The Violent History of Public Squares"

"This research initiative is an attempt to rediscover the lost or neglected urban symbols. The Urban Square is a city's 'heart and soul' and that is the focus of this project."
{{Authority control 01 Parks Square . Landscape architecture Protected areas Road infrastructure Subnational parks Urban design Urban studies and planning terminology