Piazza Antonio Casotti

Address and contacts

Piazza Antonio Casotti - 42121 Reggio nell'Emilia

How to get there

Reggio nell'Emilia - Town centre

The square is located just on the back of the Town Hall

Historical notes

For those people from Reggio, who are not so young, Piazza Casotti is the old Piazza dei Ferri, or even better,“piaseta di Zavai”. Here in fact, until the middle of the 1980’s, they held very frequent markets of old work implements, of bric-a-brac, recycled objects; a smaller version of the current Sunday antiques market. This urban space hasn’t got a very ancient history. It was created in fact by demolishing some delapidated buildings at the beginning of the 20th century. In those days they needed new space for municipal offices and the council architect Sorgata erected a building in the 15th century style backing onto the Sala del Tricolore that, with its imposing portico and its elegant mullioned windows, characterises the present day Piazza Casotti.

Curiosity

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissanc era a very sad building occupied the present day open space: it was the building that housed the local prisons. Here were detained everyone who contravened the rules of the Council Regulations. They found themselves in the company of ferocious murderers, thieves, brigands, swindlers, conmen, but also of small-time tax evaders unable to pay one of the many levies already in force back then. Justice at that time was very severe, and in front of the prison, in the present day Via Arcipretura where you find the paper and print shops, there lived an esteemed public servant: the executioner. On the 24th November, St Prospero’s day, a condemned prisoner, chosen at random, was instead taken to the omonimous Basilica and pardoned. It was the tribute from the city to its Patron Saint.