Piazza Cavalli & the Farnese Equestrian Statues
Piacenza's vast central piazza is anchored by two of the finest Baroque bronze statues in Italy — towering equestrian portraits of Alessandro and Ranuccio Farnese cast by Francesco Mochi in the early 1600s. Stand beneath them at dusk when the honey-coloured Palazzo del Governatore glows behind them and you'll understand why locals simply call this square 'il salotto di Piacenza'.
The Statues Up Close
Francesco Mochi broke every Renaissance rule when he cast these horses mid-gallop, manes flying, nostrils flared — a full generation before the Baroque became fashionable elsewhere in Europe. Art historians still travel from across the continent just to study the technical audacity of the casting.
Alessandro's statue, unveiled in 1625, shows the general in Roman armour gesturing toward a distant horizon. Ranuccio, completed in 1620, faces him across the cobblestones in a kind of silent dynastic conversation that has been playing out for four centuries.
The Square Itself
Piazza Cavalli is genuinely alive at all hours: morning coffee drinkers spill out of the historic Caffè del Toro, lunchtime workers cut across the cobbles, and on Friday and Saturday evenings the whole city seems to converge here for the passeggiata.
The Gothic Palazzo del Comune — nicknamed Il Gotico — closes the northern end of the square with its distinctive red-brick arcades and a small green copper roof. It was built in 1281 and is one of the best-preserved medieval town halls in northern Italy.
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