BROWSE HERE

This site was the heart of the medieval city in the Middle Ages. It was located within the second circle of walls and in the middle of the thirteenth century in this area stood the Casa del Comune and the Ezzelinian residences. At the center of the square there was a well, which is why it is still often called 'piazza del pozzo'. It was also known by the names of 'Piazza del Sale' and then 'Piazza degli Zoccoli', because until the mid-twentieth century this was a market place where numerous street vendors gathered to sell the 'sgalmare', characteristic wooden clogs. The first square of Bassano was a much larger time. On it also faced the Fondaco dei Grani, then restored and used (1494) in Monte di Pietà: the severe 'Monte Vecchio', which gives its name to the place and which bears the most ancient crest of the city: two rampant lions at the sides of a tower. The piazzotto was also an extraordinary outdoor art gallery. On its eastern front the Michieli-Bonato house was frescoed with biblical scenes, partly still visible, by Francesco and Bartolomeo Nasocchio, contemporaries of the Dal Ponte. The adjacent Casa dal Corno-Bonato had decorations with putti, animals and allegorical motifs by Jacopo dal Ponte. This frieze was detached to be restored in 1975 and was later placed in the Museo Civico (1982).