PIAZZA VECCHIA
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A square lined with famous palaces, the real center of the Upper Town in Bergamo.
This beautiful 15th century square, the real center of the Upper Town, is lined with famous palaces. Among them, the Palazzo della Ragione (12th century) considered one of the oldest buildings of its kind in Lombardy. It is distinguished by an imposing external staircase and arcades through which you can access the Duomo square. The lion of St. Mark on the facade reminds us that the city was a Venetian possession for 350 years until the arrival of Bonaparte. Also admirable is the Palazzo della Biblioteca, finished in 1611 by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Near the Palazzo della Ragione there is the Torre Comunale, known as il Campanone (52 m high), which still rings its bells on certain occasions in memory of the medieval curfew. As for the fountain that decorates the center of the square, it was offered in 1780 to the inhabitants of the city by the doge of Venice Alvise Contarini. Highly symbolic, it is adorned with lions, snakes and sphinxes, symbols of strength and cunning, qualities once recognized to the Bergamascians.
A little further on, about 10 meters from the cathedral, under the arcades, you walk on it without realizing it before realizing that there is a beautiful and original sundial, in the form of a meridian - that is to say, it only works at noon. It is not the shadow that gives the time, but the sun that indicates the date on a graduated scale on the ground. If you're in the area before noon, be sure to go up there.
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