Bologna built this square across the twelfth to fifteenth centuries and has never stopped using it, for debates, protests, summer film screenings and daily life alike. San Petronio's facade closes off the southeast side still half clad in raw stone, its marble veneer abandoned mid-thought when funds meant for the church were redirected to build a university palace instead.
Palazzo d'Accursio, the seat of city government, faces it from the west, while the adjoining Piazza del Nettuno adds Giambologna's bronze fountain of Neptune, cast in 1567 and still startling for how much flesh the sculptor found in bronze. Together the squares form the civic heart of Bologna, ringed by porticoes that let the crowds gather rain or shine.
