Piazza della Libertà

Piazza della Libertà is small by the standards of Italian civic squares — barely forty metres across — but it commands its space with complete authority. The Palazzo Pubblico occupies the western side with its rose-pink facade and arched loggia, the Palazzo Garampi faces it across the narrowest dimension of the square, and at the lower end a bronze statue of Saint Marinus marks the transition to the stepped street that descends the hill. From the upper end, between the facades and the sky, the top of the Cesta tower is visible, a reminder that the whole square sits at the base of a mountain that is simultaneously the city's identity and its defence.

The Palazzo Pubblico is the heart of the square and the symbol of the Republic. Its construction spans several periods — the lower storey dates from the 14th century, the upper storey and the fine Renaissance courtyard within were added in the late 15th and early 16th centuries — but it reads as a coherent whole. The exterior is faced in the local pink stone that gives the whole capital its characteristic colour, and the arched loggia on the ground floor is a graceful piece of civic architecture that invites sitting, pausing, watching the passing crowd.

Inside the palazzo, the main halls are open to visitors and contain the collections of the State Museum of the Republic: coins, stamps, medals and documents that trace the political history of a state that has been diplomatically recognised by Italy since 1856 and is a member of the Council of Europe and the United Nations. The rooms themselves are worth the visit — the grand hall with its portraits of past captains regent and the painted ceilings are well preserved, and the state rooms on the piano nobile have a quality of quiet authority rather than ostentatious display.

The piazza as a public space functions differently at different times of day. In the early morning, before the souvenir shops open and before the tour buses arrive from the coast, it is a genuine civic space: a few locals crossing to work, the fountain running, pigeons working the stonework. By mid-morning in summer it has become a through-market for day-trippers, and by early afternoon the surrounding cafes have taken over most of the available seating. The best hours for experiencing the square as a place rather than a passage are early morning and late afternoon.

The bronze statue of Saint Marinus at the lower end of the piazza, erected in 1846, is the visual marker that divides the civic square from the commercial street below. The saint stands in bronze with the inscription LIBERTAS, the Republic's founding principle, carved on the pedestal. From this point you look down the stepped main street of the city, which is lined with the souvenir shops, tobacco kiosks and cafes that sustain much of the local economy and give the lower city its particular energy. The contrast between the composed stone dignity of the piazza and the animated commercial street below is one of the things that gives San Marino its unusual character.

The Palazzo Pubblico is both the seat of government and a fine piece of late-medieval and Renaissance civil architecture, with state rooms that are open to visitors and contain the collections of the State Museum.

The compact piazza, framed by the pink-stone palazzi and the towers visible on the ridge above, is one of the most compactly concentrated civic spaces in any European capital, and its small scale is part of its character.

The square and its immediate streets give access to the tourist office, the cable car station, and the main pedestrian routes down the mountain, making it the practical starting point for any visit to San Marino.