Piazza Bra

Square Verona, Italy

Piazza Bra, or more simply the Bra, is the largest square in Verona, located in its historic center. The open space of the Bra began to turn into a square only in the first half of the sixteenth century, when the architect Michele Sanmicheli completed the Palazzo degli Honorij: this building went to delimit the western side of the future square, as well as to establish a correct perspective on the Arena . However, the first attempt to transform the dirt road into a place for strolling was made by the podestà Alvise Mocenigo, who wanted to create a meeting place for the nascent Veronese bourgeoisie: he was able to inaugurate the first part of the Liston, a paved sidewalk that flanks the Bra connecting Corso Porta Nuova to Via Mazzini, in 1770. The Gran Guardia, begun by the Venetians in the seventeenth century and completed by the Austrians in the nineteenth century, went to delimit the southern side of the square, while in 1836 the architect Giuseppe Barbieri designed the eastern edge, where a hospital, some houses and a small church were demolished, in their place the Gran Guardia Nuova, better known as Palazzo Barbieri, was built. This, initially used as a barracks by the Austrians, became, following the annexation of the Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy, the seat of the municipality of Verona.