Piazza dell’Anfiteatro
Lorenzo Nottolini · Lucca, Italy · 1830
Piazza dell'Anfiteatro makes the footprint of Lucca's Roman amphitheater legible through the curved façades of later houses. Medieval and early modern buildings gradually occupied the ancient structure, preserving its elliptical geometry in property lines and passages. In the nineteenth century Lorenzo Nottolini cleared the interior and regularized the façades to create the public square seen today. Four narrow gateways compress arrival before the space opens into a continuous urban room animated by shops and residences. The date therefore refers to Nottolini's urban reconfiguration, not to the Roman fabric underlying the block.