Pause for a while in Piazza Mascheroni

If you enter Bergamo’s Città Alta (upper town) from Colle Aperto and cross Piazza Cittadella you will pass under an archway into Piazza Mascheroni.

Torre della Campanella

It is easy to walk straight through the rectangular piazza to the top of the fascinating Via Colleoni with its shops, restaurants and bars.

But it is worth taking a few minutes to look round Piazza Mascheroni and savour the wonderful views from it first.

At one side of the piazza there is a particularly good spot for taking photographs. You can see the Città Bassa (lower town) spread out below and the hills above the city, with the mountains a long way in the distance.

At the centre of the square the Torre della Campanella was started in the 13th century but was not completed until the oriental-style spire was added in the 19th century. You will have come through the archway within its base to enter the square

On the walls of the buildings on the other side of the piazza you can see original 16th century frescoes, which were uncovered and restored during the 1990s.

Piazza Mascheroni was known as Piazza Nuova during the period that Bergamo was under Venetian rule in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is believed to have once been the site of the city’s linen market and old documents have revealed that it was also sometimes used to stage games and entertainment. 

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