Town square

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Announcement of the establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on Congress Square in 1918

A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or piazza) is an open public space[1] commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Related concepts are the civic center, the market square and the village green.

Most squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets, concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. Being centrally located, town squares are usually surrounded by small shops such as bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores, and clothing stores. At their center is often a well, monument, statue or other feature. Those with fountains are sometimes called fountain squares.[citation needed]

By country[edit]


The city centre of Adelaide and the adjacent suburb of North Adelaide, in South Australia, were planned by Colonel William Light in 1837. The city streets were laid out in a grid plan, with the city centre including a central public square, Victoria Square, and four public squares in the centre of each quarter of the city. North Adelaide has two public squares. The city was also designed to be surrounded by park lands, and all of these features still exist today, with the squares maintained as mostly green spaces.[2][3]


Fountain in People's Square in Shanghai, China

In Mainland China, People's Square is a common designation for the central town square of modern Chinese cities, established as part of urban modernization within the last few decades. These squares are the site of government buildings, museums and other public buildings. One such square, Tiananmen Square, is a famous site in Chinese history due to it being the site of the May Fourth Movement, the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China, the Tiananmen Incident, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, and all Chinese National Day Parades.





A piazza (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjattsa]) is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. San Marco in Venice may be the world's best known. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza. In Ethiopia, it is used to refer to a part of a city.




In the United States, in the early 19th century, a piazza by further extension became a fanciful name for a colonnaded porch. Piazza was used by some, especially in the Boston[4] area, to refer to a verandah or front porch of a house or apartment.[5]





In traditional Persian architecture, town squares are known as maydan or meydan. A maydan is considered one of the essential features in urban planning and they are often adjacent to bazaars, large mosques and other public buildings. Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan and Azadi Square in Tehran are examples of classic and modern squares.

The Netherlands and Belgium[edit]

Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium

In the Low Countries, squares are often called "market" because of their usage as a marketplace. Most towns and cities in Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands have in their historical centre a Grote Markt (literally "Grand Market") in Dutch or Grand Place (literally "Grand Square") in French (for example the Grand Place in Brussels and the Grote Markt in Antwerp). The Grote Markt or Grand Place is often the location of the town hall, hence also the political centre of the town. The Dutch word for square is plein, which is another common name for squares in Dutch-speaking regions (for example Het Plein in The Hague).

In the 17th and 18th centuries, another type of square emerged, the so-called Royal square (French: Place royale, Dutch: Koningsplein). Such squares did not serve as a marketplace but were built in front of large palaces or public buildings to emphasise their grandeur, as well as to accommodate military parades, ceremonies, etc. (for example the Place Royale in Brussels and the Koningsplein in Amsterdam). Palace squares are usually more symmetrical than their older market counterparts.


Red Square in Moscow, Russia, a view from the northwest, showing historic St. Basil's Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower or "Saviour Tower"

In Russia, central square (Russian: центра́льная пло́щадь, romanised: tsentráĺnaya plóshchad́) is a common term for an open area in the heart of the town.[citation needed] In a number of cities, the square has no individual name and is officially designated Central Square, for example Central Square (Tolyatti).

Spanish-speaking countries[edit]

The Spanish-language term for a public square is plaza, and this term is used across Spain, Spanish America, the southwestern United States, and the Philippines. In addition to smaller plazas, the Plaza Mayor (in Spanish colonies sometimes called Plaza de Armas, "armament square", where troops could be mustered) of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cantabile or administrative center, which might be incorporated in a wing of a governor's palace, and the audience or law court. The plaza might be large enough to serve as a military parade ground. At times of crisis or fiesta, it was the space where a large crowd might gather.

Like the Italian piazza and the Portuguese praça, the plaza remains a center of community life that is only equaled by the market-place. A plaza de toros is a bullring. Shopping centers may incorporate "plaza" into their names, and plaza commercial is used in some countries as a synonym for "centro comercial" i.e. "shopping center".[6]

Plaza (European Spanish: [ˈplaθa]; or, Latin American Spanish: [ˈplasa]) is a Spanish word, cognate to Italian piazza and French place (which has also been borrowed into English). The origin of all these words is, via Latin platea, from Greek πλατεῖα (ὁδός) plateia (hodos), meaning "broad (way or street)".[7]

United Kingdom[edit]

In the United Kingdom, and especially in London and Edinburgh, a "square" has a wider meaning. There are public squares of the type described above but the term is also used for formal open spaces surrounded by houses with private gardens at the centre, sometimes known as garden squares. Most of these were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. In some cases the gardens are now open to the public. See the Squares in London category. Additionally, many public squares were created in towns and cities across the UK as part of urban redevelopment following the Blitz. Squares can also be quite small and resemble courtyards, especially in the City of London. In London the most impressive example which does not incorporate gardens and which is surrounded by historic buildings is probably Trafalgar Square. In Halifax, the recently restored Piece Hall has been described as a piazza rivalling many in Europe.

United States[edit]


In U.S. English, a plaza can mean one of several things:[9]

  • a town square, as in the Spanish usage
  • "any open area usually located near urban buildings and often featuring walkways, trees and shrubs, places to sit, and sometimes shops"
  • a shopping center of any size
  • a toll plaza, where traffic must temporarily stop to pay tolls
  • an area adjacent to an expressway which has service facilities (such as restaurants, gas station, and restrooms)

Today's metropolitan landscapes often incorporate the plaza as a design element, or as an outcome of zoning regulations, building budgetary constraints, and the like. Sociologist William H. Whyte conducted an extensive study of plazas in New York City: his study humanized the way modern urban plazas are conceptualized, and helped usher in significant design changes in the making of plazas., they can be used to open spaces for low income neighborhoods, and can also the overall aesthetic of the surrounding area boosting economic vitality, pedestrian mobility and safety for pedestrians.[10] Most plazas are created out of a collaboration between local non-profit applicants and city officials which requires approval from the city.[11]


See also[edit]


  2. ^ "The Adelaide park lands and city layout" (PDF). Australian Heritage Database: Places for Decision: Class: Historic. For consideration for National Heritage List. Australian Government. Dept for the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts. 9 July 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2019. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ Anderson, Margaret (31 December 2013). "Light's Plan of Adelaide 1837". Adelaidia. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  4. ^ Boston University, "Boston English"
  5. ^ Piazza in the Oxford American Dictionary (2001).
  6. ^ "Plaza comercial", Linguee
  8. ^ "Boston squared". 16 June 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  9. ^ "Plaza", Merriam-Webster Dictionary
  11. ^ Bloomekatz, Ari (11 March 2012). "Silver Lake gets an unusual new park space". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 October 2015.

External links[edit]