Piazza Cisterna

In Piazzo, the old town of Biella, Piazza Cisterna, once a marketplace, is picturesque, encircled as it is by low porticoes. It is overlooked by the sixteenth-century palazzo Dal Pozzo della Cisterna, with a late Renaissance façade and an elegant loggia on the top floor. On the opposite side, theformer building of the Municipality, then abandoned and transformed into housing. Among the other mediaeval buildings with arcades with ogival arches supported by pillars, columns with capitals and windows decorated in terracotta, the Teccio house (at no. 14) stands out on the left side of the square. Then there is the Church of San Giacomo and, to its right, Palazzo Gromo di Ternengo (sixteenth century, but renovated in the nineteenth century), with a two-storey Renaissance courtyard with loggias, porticoes and terracotta decorations.