• - Tiananmen Square (Beijing) from the Forbidden City; Similarly, Mao's mausoleum, built in emulation of Lenin's. Mao's portrait still presides over it. It is the largest in the world (440,000 square meters). It has been the scene of very important historical events: the Western repression of the Boxer Rebellion (1901) and the subsequent siege reflected in the film 55 Days in Peking, the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and the events of 1989, in which it was taken over by students demanding democratic reforms, violently repressed by the army.
• - Red Square (Moscow) is one of the squares with the greatest political use in all of history, with an accumulation of spaces typical of historical memory: Saint Basil's Cathedral, Moscow Kremlin, Lenin's mausoleum and burials of those who achieved the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The May Day commemorative parade became a world reference at that time.
• - Jamaa el Fna Square in Marrakech, an open square in Islamic urbanism, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, largely due to the influence of Juan Goytisolo. The Arab souk was more commonly a labyrinthine space of streets and not an open space, if not completely closed, like the bazaar in the Near East. The other urban functions were distributed by the mosque (religious and judicial), the citadel (military)... so there was no space as privileged as the main squares of Castilian urban planning.
• - Plaza de Bolívar in Santa Fe de Bogotá, one of the oldest in America with its great history and architecture, with a grid-shaped urban layout, a legacy of the Spanish in the colonial era that dates back to Roman times, being today the economic and cultural center of Colombia.
• - Plaza Arenales (Buenos Aires) seen by the students of the Delfín Gallo school. The geography of perception") studies the importance of urban landmarks in shaping the image of the space actually experienced by the inhabitants of a city. The spontaneity of children's drawings is a widely used vehicle to analyze them, and squares, obviously, are a central reference for children.
There are no two squares exactly alike in the world, but they can be grouped into several large groups based on their shape:
• - Quadrangular: like the Red Square in Moscow, Tiananmen Square, and particularly the Plaza Mayor, typical of Castilian urban planning (such as the Plaza Mayor in Madrid) and Latin America (where it is common to receive the name Plaza de Armas); It is also usually called Plaza Real, or in some cases Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución "Plaza de la Constitución (Mexico City)") in Mexico City). In English urban planning, this shape is usually called square (Trafalgar Square).
• - Irregular, as is usual in the medieval square"), like the Piazza del Campo in Siena.
• - Elliptical, typical of baroque urban planning from Bernini's St. Peter's Square in Rome. The conceptual innovations that it integrates make it a very complex structure, although it has precedents in rectangular squares, such as the square of Pienza or the Roman square of Campidoglio, designed respectively by Rossellino and Michelangelo.[10].
• - Circular, roundabout or roundabout, such as Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, or Glorieta de Insurgentes in Mexico City. In English urban planning, this form is usually called circus&action=edit&redlink=1 "Circus (urban planning) (not yet written)") (Piccadilly Circus). In French urban planning, it is usually called rond-point") (like the Place de l'Etoile where the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is located). Although the use is different, bullrings are also circular (with some exceptions), which have their origin in public squares.
• - Semicircular, like the Plaza de España in Seville "Plaza de España (Seville)"), or the Kazánskaya Square in Saint Petersburg with its Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan "Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan (Saint Petersburg)"), Russia. In English urban planning, this form, with its landscaped interior, is often called crescent&action=edit&redlink=1 "Crescent (urban planning) (not yet drafted)") ("crescent" or "half-moon").
• - Elongated, like the Plaza Navona in Rome, or the Macroplaza in Monterrey, Mexico.
• - Piazza del Campo in Siena, an example of an irregular medieval layout and of Piazza della Signoria, as a space of respect") in front of the town hall (commune), the highest public power in the Italian city-states. It is a magnificent example of use in festivities and shows: it annually hosts the Palio di Siena, a frenetic horse race in which the city's neighborhoods compete for the honor of hosting a banner in their parish.
• - Capitol Square (Campidoglio) in Rome. Rectangular in shape, the structure of the pavement designed by Michelangelo highlights the equestrian sculpture of Marcus Aurelius and integrates the access staircase with its optical dynamism. The name derives from the Capitoline Hill where the center of political power was located in Ancient Rome, and is at the origin of the concept capital (politics) "Capital (politics)") extended to all the states of the world.
• - St. Mark's Square (Venice), historically a religious center (Patriarchate of Venice), political center (Palace of the Doge of the Most Serene Republic") and long-distance trade center (dominated the routes of the Eastern Mediterranean from the 12th to the 18th century). It has most of its surface as a closed square, while the area of the most important buildings is open towards the Grand Canal, so its plan is quite irregular, despite the harmonious proportions and perspectives. Napoleon called it "the most beautiful ballroom in Europe". It is the privileged place for events such as the Venice Carnival.
• - Puerta del Sol, Madrid, where kilometer zero of Spanish roads is located. It hosted historical events such as the uprising of May 2, 1808 (painted by Goya) and the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic on April 14, 1931. The New Year chimes of its clock are experienced throughout Spain with the ritual of the twelve grapes.
• - Aerial view of Palace Square "Palace Square (St. Petersburg)"), St. Petersburg, located between the General Staff Building (above) and the Winter Palace (below). It connects Nevsky Avenue with the Palace Bridge that leads to Vasilyevsky Island; It is the central square of Saint Petersburg and the former Russian Empire.
Other classification criteria can distinguish:
• - Plaza on a single level (the most common structure), or staggered plaza, such as the Olympic ring of Montjuic "Montjuic (Barcelona)") in Barcelona, the Plaza de España (Rome) "Plaza de España (Rome)"), the Plaza de San Francisco (Quito) "Plaza de San Francisco (Quito)"), or the aforementioned Plaza del Campidoglio.
• - open square (so that it leaves great perspectives, typical of baroque urban planning, such as Piazza del Popolo in Rome) and closed square (such as the model of the main square or that of the French bastides "Bastida (urbanism)"). In this case, the angles can be completely closed with buildings (receiving the French name cornières). The French concept of place carrefour would designate a square in which its main characteristic is being a crossroads of streets.
• - Plaza parvis or plaza cemetery, depending on whether the origin was having been the "space of respect" in front of a palace or church or having served as a burial site.
• - Plaza Mayor of Guatemala, example of Plaza de Armas, with the colonial cathedral and buildings of 20th century architecture. The function of welcoming social conflict, like this demonstration, is also typical of urban open spaces.
• - Plaza de España (Rome) "Plaza de España (Rome)"), located at different levels, a very wide staircase bridges the gap. The name refers to the presence of the Spanish Embassy.
• - Place Vendôme, Paris. Although the opening of the central avenue allows a great perspective, it is a closed square with its cornières. The central column (Vendôme Column) imitates Trajan's Column. Its material comes from cannons captured by Napoleon, whom it honors. It was demolished during the Paris Commune (1870), an event for which Courbet was held responsible.
• - Plaza de España (Seville) "Plaza de España (Seville)"), designed for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 "Ibero-American Exhibition of Seville (1929)") (its exoticism has made it the setting for notable films, from Lawrence of Arabia to Episode II of Star Wars).
• - Taking into account the national style, they have been proposed[11]
- Spanish style plaza (also spread throughout America),
- English style square (among others, the already mentioned square, circus and crescent, very common since the century in the urban planning of Bath and the squares of London")),
- French style square (with abundant examples in the squares of Paris"))
• - Taking into account the typologies, the following have been proposed:[12]
- alameda "Alameda (gardening)"),
• - Taking into account sensory characteristics (such as colors), the following have been proposed:
- Garden square, the spaces in which plant formations are prioritized.
- Dry plaza, spaces that support intense pedestrian circulation (if the characteristics of the cobblestone flooring are predominant over its entire surface, we speak of the already mentioned concept of hard plaza.)
- Blue square, in which water would play a fundamental role. Some belveders and gardens would have such a characteristic, although as has been said, the presence of the fountain is foundational in the historical concept of a plaza.
- Yellow square, which would be the beaches.
• - The Place de la Concorde (Paris) represents very well how squares are spaces of power, and they change with it: it successively housed a statue of Louis XV, the revolutionary guillotine and an obelisk brought from Luxor by Napoleon. The word chosen for its definitive name was intended to put an end to the confrontations, and also symbolizes the role of coexistence and civic relations that the squares have.
• - Trafalgar Square. The column of Nelson, a British hero who died in the Battle of Trafalgar, makes it a clear space of memory; But since the 1960s and 1970s, with the hippie movement, the space became one of the emblematic places of youth subculture around the world, symbolizing the fun and free spectacle that comes with the same presence of people from all over the world who exchange their forms of expression or simply pass by and look.
• - Plaza de Cibeles (Madrid) is a circular plaza that ends at the Salón del Prado, a tree-lined promenade that houses three of the most important painting museums in the world (the Prado, the Thyssen and the Reina Sofía). In the Plaza are located the Casa de América, the Ministry of Defense, the Bank of Spain and the Communications Palace (which is planned to become the headquarters of the City Council). The perspective includes the Puerta de Alcalá.
• - Macroplaza (Monterrey). It is the fourth largest in the world (400,000 square meters), and is the result of the recent demolition (in the 1980s) of numerous old buildings. It contains, in addition to numerous museums, monuments and gardens, a 70-meter-high lighthouse. It contrasts modern buildings with colonial ones, such as the cathedral, or neoclassical ones, such as the Government Palace.