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Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco

Paperback

Series: Wonders of the World, Book 43

Architecture HistoryItalyItalian History

ISBN10: 0674066065
ISBN13: 9780674066069
Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr
Published: Nov 19 2012
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.52
Height: 0.80 Width: 4.30 Depth: 6.90
Language: English

The Piazza San Marco, one of the most famous and instantly recognizable townscapes in the West, if not the world, has been described as a stage set, as Europe's drawing room, as a painter's canvas. This book traces the changing shape and function of the piazza, from its beginnings in the ninth century to its present day ubiquity in the Venetian, European, as well as global imagination.

Through its long history, the Piazza San Marco has functioned as civic space that was used for such varied activities as public meetings; animal-baiting; executions; state processions; meat and produce markets; a performance venue for rock concerts; as well as, more recently, a cafe to enjoy a leisurely Campari. Constantly alert to the question of function, this book recreates not only rituals of the past but also activities of the present, from the coronation of the doge to the legendary Pink Floyd concert of 1989, with much fanfare in between. Iain Fenlon recreates the dynamic, colorful, and noisy history of the piazza--a history that is also the history of Venice and, indeed, of Europe.

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Architecture History