Piazza Umberto I (or Piazza Umberto Primo from the 1930s, La Piazzetta, meaning "little square"; nicknamed, "the little theater of the world") is the most famous square of the island of

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has be ...

, Italy. The square is located in the historic center of Capri, in the eponymous town

, on the eastern end of the island, and since Roman times, it has been considered the center of the town and the meeting point of the island by both residents and others.

History

The church of Santo Stefano was built in the eighteenth century and was converted into a cathedral when the

Bishop of Capri The Roman Catholic Diocese of Capri (Latin: ''Dioecesis Capriensis seu Capritana'') was a Roman Catholic diocese located in the city of Capri on the island of Capri, in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf ...

established his seat there. A staircase was added to connect the church with the square and the bishop's residence, now the town hall. The

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

ry remained until 1818 when, by order of Pope

Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a ...

, the diocese was suppressed and Capri was absorbed into the Diocese of Sorrento. The square was already well developed as the center of local life when, in 1900, it was home to produce markets of vegetables and fish and meat. The square took on a more worldly character only when Raffaele Vuotto opened his bar, the Grand Café Vuotto between 1934 and 1938, arranging the chairs and tables outside. Afterwards, other islanders opened their own businesses, and from that time on, the Piazzetta became the heart of social life on the island.

Description

The main element of the square is the

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

, which is very often associated with the island of Capri; it may have come the church of Hagia Sophia or a watchtower of the adjacent wall. There are many inscriptions in the square: for example, outside the town hall there are two marble plaques which resemble

Vittorio Emanuele II en, Victor Emmanuel Maria Albert Eugene Ferdinand Thomas , house = Savoy , father = Charles Albert of Sardinia , mother = Maria Theresa of Austria , religion = Roman Catholicism , image_size = 252px , succession ...

and

Umberto I Umberto I ( it, Umberto Rainerio Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900. Umberto's reign saw Italy attempt colo ...

, another plaque commemorates the Caprese Gennaro Arcucci, martyr of the Bourbon restoration. Replacing one of the four facades of the tower is a plaque commemorating the fallen in World War I. Other plaques (raised in 1908) are present in the courtyard of City Hall, where two epigraphs remember Henry Wreford, a ''Times'' correspondent who came to Capri for a day and decided to settle for fifty years, and the Scot George Sidney Clark, who in 1861 opened the largest hotel on the island, the notable

Grand Hotel Quisisana The Grand Hotel Quisisana is the largest hotel on the island of Capri. It is located in the old town of Capri, opposite to the Hotel Residenza Capri and the Villa Sanfelice, to the south of the Piazza Umberto I. It was founded as a sanatorium in ...

References

External links

Piazetta
{{Capri topics Piazzas in Capri, Campania