The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a feature of many European and colonial towns. It is an open area where market stalls are traditionally set out for trading, commonly on one particular day of the week known as market day.
A typical English market square consists of a square or rectangular area, or sometimes just a widening of the main street. It is usually situated in the centre of the town, surrounded by major buildings such as the parish church, town hall, important shops and hotels, and the post office, together with smaller shops and business premises. There is sometimes a permanent covered market building (the cloth hall), and the entire area is a traditional meeting place for local people as well as a centre for trade.
The largest Market Square in Europe is the Main Market Square in Kraków, Poland, a major centre of international trade during its golden age in the 15th century. Incidentally, the longest such square is also located in Poland, in the town of Pułtusk.
Famous quotes containing the words market and/or square:
“It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they would never had duped the world, which cannot resist so original an appearance.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)