When was Piazza Maggiore built?
Piazza Maggiore was created from around 1200, when Bologna’s commune started buying up the houses, plots and towers on the site and knocking them down. The city wanted two things: room for a market, and a suitably grand setting for its own government.
It was not built in one go. Palazzo del Podestà went up on the north side at about the same time the ground was being cleared, and Palazzo Re Enzo was added behind it in 1244 to 1246. The Basilica di San Petronio was begun on the south side in 1390 and is still missing most of its facade. Palazzo dei Banchi on the east side got its Renaissance front in 1565 to 1568.
So the space dates from the early 1200s, and the square you see today took shape over the following three to four centuries. The raised paving in the middle is much newer: it went in in 1934.
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