Piazza Maggiore Site Features

The square is built on a slope, which is the first thing to notice: it works as a series of linked terraces and stairways rather than as a flat rectangle.

The surrounding buildings are almost all of the sixteenth-century rebuilding, and several retain their painted facades -- fresco was the standard exterior finish in the Veneto at the time, and Feltre has an unusually high survival rate because everything was painted at once and much has been conserved.

The church of San Rocco stands on one side, and the Palazzo della Ragione -- the civic hall, with a portico and, inside, the Teatro de la Sena -- on another.

The fountain by Tullio Lombardo, of 1520, is the square's principal sculpture.

Above it all rises the Castello di Alboino, so the square is enclosed on the upper side by the hill and the fortress.

The frescoed facades

Painted exteriors from the sixteenth-century rebuilding, surviving in unusual numbers around the square and along Via Mezzaterra below.

Tullio Lombardo’s fountain

A Venetian sculptor's work of 1520, in a small alpine town -- a direct trace of Venice's investment after 1510.

The stepped levels

The square works as terraces and stairs on a slope, which gives it a character no flat piazza has.

The castle above

The Castello di Alboino closes the upper side and is a five-minute climb.