Piazza Walther

Laid out under Bavarian rule in 1808 and named in 1901 for the medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide, Bolzano's principal square pairs a minstrel statue with the cathedral at its edge.

Why it matters

Every city with an alpine past has a square where its languages and loyalties were argued out, and Bolzano's is Piazza Walther. Created in its present form in 1808, when the town briefly lay under the Kingdom of Bavaria and the square was named for King Maximilian Joseph, it was renamed several times as administrations changed, receiving the name of the Middle High German poet Walther von der Vogelweide in 1901. The monument to the minstrel, unveiled in 1889, turned the square into a stage for the cultural politics of the following century: it was moved aside under fascist rule and only returned in the 1980s. Today the square remains a civic centre: the arcades of the old town begin at its corners, and seasonal events have long made use of its open space.

What to notice

At the centre stands the statue by the sculptor Heinrich Natter, from the Val Venosta. Carved from white Lasa marble in a neo-Romanesque manner, it shows Walther von der Vogelweide, the poet who lived between about 1170 and 1230 and stands among the most celebrated voices of Middle High German lyric. Sidelined to a less prominent spot during the fascist period and restored to the square in the 1980s, it embodies the bilingual city's negotiations over its own symbols. The Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta closes one side with its distinctive stone-and-plaster facade; streets at the other corners connect with the medieval grid and its arcades. The square's proportions, set in the early nineteenth century, give it the character of a composed urban room rather than a medieval marketplace.

Context and history

The square is a product of administrative remaking rather than organic growth. In 1808, under Bavarian administration, the space was laid out and dedicated to the Bavarian king, and its subsequent names trace the region's passing rulers: a period as Johannesplatz in honour of Archduke Johann of Austria, the Walther name from 1901, and a brief interwar spell under a royal Italian name before the monument's removal era began. Under fascist rule the statue was moved in 1935 to a less prominent site, Rosegger Park, where it remained until it was restored to the square in the 1980s; the square itself has since resumed its role as the shared centre of a bilingual city. Seasonal markets continue the square's role as a setting for civic gatherings. The buildings around it, including the cathedral and the townhouses that hold cafes and shops, keep the nineteenth-century frontage that gives the square its enclosed, room-like shape.