What is the Crescentone in Piazza Maggiore?

The crescentone is the raised rectangle of paving in the center of Piazza Maggiore. It was built in 1934, stands about 15 cm above the rest of the square, and is paved in white and pink granite.

The name is a joke at the expense of local food. Bolognesi thought it looked like a crescente, the flat, salted bread of Bolognese cooking, and added -one, the Italian ending that makes a thing bigger. So: the big crescente.

Today it is where people sit. On a warm evening the edges fill with students, families and anyone holding a gelato, and it is the closest thing the square has to a bench. The Comune di Bologna notes that the central area has always hosted the market.

A local story says the scuffs on its surface were made by an American tank at the Liberation on 21 April 1945. The Italian Wikipedia entry doubts it, saying postwar photographs show no damage and that a harvester displayed at a farm fair in the 1970s is the likelier culprit.