Cavour Square

Piazza Cavour, or Piazza Vecchia, is one of Sondrio’s oldest squares; for centuries it served as the market square, where
goods from all over Valtellina were bought and sold. It was also, originally, the way station for the Valtellina “pony express”, along the Via Valeriana, the only road linking the settlements along the sun-kissed foothills of the Alps until the early eighteen hundreds. For many centuries, the footbridge over the Mallero torrent near Piazza Vecchia was the only connection between the town along the far bank and the quarter of Cantone, and it was also the site of the city’s western gate in the 14th century, when the defensive walls were erected. At number 10, there is a flight of ancient stone steps leading up to the Masegra Castle, named the Salita Ligari in honor of the famous painter from Valtellina, whose home it flanks.

The piazza, ringed by buildings erected in the 18th century and with a central “market awning” added in Fascist times, is closed off at the bottom by a wall from which water gushes into a low fountain that mimics the ancient canals along the Mallero, known as the Malleretti.