H ouse and Garden 
FIG. 5—VERONA 
Piazza del Duomo 
FIG. 6-PALERMO 
S. Cita 
EIG. 7-LUCCA 
S. Michel 
FIG. 8—VICENZA 
Piazza del Duomo 
noria at Florence! Is the fault entirely that of mod¬ 
ern conditions ? May it not lie with the absence of 
that artistic thought which went to the making of the 
former ? 
If we study the plans of ancient “places” we shall 
find that, despite their apparently aimless irregular¬ 
ity, they were in fact constructed upon definite prin¬ 
ciples. And first let us notice that the statues, 
fountains, and other monuments were placed, not in 
the centre of the space as now, hut at the sides. That 
fountains should be placed beside the beaten track¬ 
way where animals 
may slake their thirst 
is natural; the Scho- 
nerbrunnen fountain 
at Nuremberg [fig. 1 ] 
is a well-known in¬ 
stance. They will be 
found similarly placed 
in the Signoria at 
Florence, in front of 
the Palazzo Comnni- 
nale at Perugia [fig. 3 ] and many other places, hut 
rarely or never in the axis line of the palace or 
square. 1 he position of Donatello’s equestrian 
statue of Gattemala beside the church of St. An¬ 
thony of Padua [fig. 4 ] is pointed to by Sitte as 
most instructive. “If,” says he, “one at first obser¬ 
ves with surprise how it differs from those advocated 
by our stereotyped modern systems, one is quickly 
struck by the superb effect of the monument so plac¬ 
ed,” and you no longer wonder at its orientation and 
other unconventionalities. As the Gattemala and 
the little column stand at the side of the entrance to 
the church, so the obelisks and statues of the Pha¬ 
raohs rose beside the doors of the temples. 
Another point to be noticed is that the ancient 
FIG. 9-EISA 
b —Palazzo Vccchio. c—Palazzo del Podesta. 
d—S. Stefano. d—Palazzo dei Anziani 
churches in Italy were most often engaged on one or 
more sides with other buildings, and we shall see how 
this tended to produce those groups of open places 
which give such charm to the buildings. At Padua 
we find this in the plan just referred to, and you will 
note the large space formed in front of the entrance, 
giving value to the dominating facade and doorway. 
I give another instance at Verona [fig. 5 ], and one 
with the “place” at the side of the church, which is 
more unusual, at Palermo [fig. 6 ]. W hile on this 
point it is interesting to note that at Rome, out of 
two hundred and fifty-five churches forty-one are 
attached on one side only to other buildings, ninety- 
six abut on two sides, one hundred and ten are en¬ 
gaged on three sides, two on four sides, and six only 
stand entirely free. Of these six, two are modern 
Protestant buildings, and the other four are sur¬ 
rounded by narrow streets. 
At Lucca [fig. 7 ], Vicenza [ fig. 8 ], and Pisa fig. 9 ] 
we have instances of churches standing free, but you 
will observe that the same rule is applied to them as to 
the monuments: they are not in the centre, but upon 
the sides of places of moderate size, and gain vastly in 
effect by their position. The modern taste is to strip 
these old masterp eces of their surroundings, to their 
infinite detriment: their frames were designed for 
them, and cannot be removed' without destroying 
valuable qualities in the work so treated. Baumeis- 
ter indeed enunciates as a principle: “Old buildings 
s h o u 1 d be pre¬ 
served, but they 
must, so to speak, 
be removed from 
their shells and 
restored! ” 
A most impor¬ 
tant feature in 
the plan of the 
old public place is 
that it was en¬ 
closed, and this is 
a principal element 
of its charm. No 
mere open space 
between streets 
will give it—the 
appearance of an 
unbroken frame 
of buildings is 
essential. I say 
appearance, because the opening of side streets 
upon the old “places” was always most carefully 
contrived so as to avoid a gaping breach in the con¬ 
tinuity of the frame. 
Two typical instances are those of the Piazza 
Grande at Parma [fig. 10 ] and the Piazza del Duomo 
at Ravenna [fig. n]. The latter illustrates very 
clearly a remarkable feature of the ancient “place, 
FIG. IO -I’ARMA 
Piazza Grande 
282 
