Piazza Alberìca (or Albèrica as it is commonly called in Carrara) is a central and and very important place in the town’s history.
It owes its name to Alberico I Cybo-Malaspina, marquis, and later prince, of Massa and Carrara, the progenitor of the marquis line of the Cybo-Malaspina family, who conceived and financed its construction in 1557, at a moment of great importance for the two cities: if in fact Massa was being founded at that time, Carrara, whose first urban nucleus dates back to Roman times, by Alberico’s will was experiencing the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Until then Carrara’s main square had been the Piazza del Duomo (which in the local dialect would later become Piazza Drent in the meaning of “within the walls”) and this centrality sanctioned the political-religious dominance exercised by the bishops, counts of Luni; Alberico, in an effort to fix the secular power exercised by his own newly born lineage enlarged the city by carrying out impressive urban works, including the enlargement of the castle (where the Academy of Fine Arts has been located since 1769), which, thanks in part to the demolition of the medieval walls, was connected by Via Alberica (today Via Loris Giorgi) directly to a large new square, the largest in Carrara, where the cattle market had been located until then. The new square, Piazza Alberica precisely, was to become the salon of the city’s aristocracy linked mainly to the marble trade, thus determining the city’s political center of gravity; some of the city’s most opulent palaces built between the 16th and 17th centuries still stand there: the Renaissance Palazzo delle Logge, or Diana Palace, which occupies almost half of one side of the square with its portico composed of twelve round arches supported by marble columns.The palace was commissioned by Count Iacopo Diana, who was awarded by Alberico the title of “caput offitii et appaltus marmoris terrae Carrariae,” a role somewhere between a marble assessor and the president of an association of industrialists. In fact, Diana was the representative of the one hundred and sixteen marble workers whom Alberic summoned to succeed in regulating and especially taxing the marble trade and quarrying that was beginning to flourish in those years. Count Diana’s substantial earnings and the subsequent building of the majestic palace confirmed the importance that the stone resource represented for the city.
The other side of the square is dominated by the baroque Del Medico Palace. Built in the 17th century by the Del Medico family, among the largest quarry owners, it is rich in stucco, sculptures and bas-reliefs. The Del Medico surname derives from the connection of the progenitor, Fabio da Seravezza, with Cosimo I De’ Medici, whose militia captain he was. The palace hosted Antonio Canova during his visit to Carrara.
On the same side of the Palazzo Del Medico, toward the Carrione River, is the oldest palace in the square: the birth house of Pietro Tacca, which already existed in the 16th century and was known as “the dovecote of the Tacca family.” Pietro Tacca, a sculptor trained in Giambologna’s workshop, was one of the greatest exponents of Mannerism and worked for various Italian and European courts.
Piazza Alberica quickly became the nerve center of commerce and the new economic power of the city, within its cafes pacts were made, marble, oxen, beech logs and everything necessary for the trade and transportation of marble were sold, workers were hired and days were paid. This also determined a clear division of the city into social classes: the wealthy entrepreneurs lived in the new square and surrounding areas, while the common people resided on the other side of the Carrione River that laps it.
In the center of the square is a statue with fountain dedicated to Maria Beatrice d’Este, the last ruler of Carrara as well as the last member of the Cybo Malaspina lineage. The statue, the work of Carrara sculptor Pietro Fontana was erected between 1816 and 1824, after the fall of Napoleon and following the return to power of the sovereign ousted by the French emperor, and depicts Maria Beatrice as Juno, with the scepter of command in one hand and a card the sovereign . Fontana completed the statue (the original design was larger) with a fountain commonly called “of the lion.” The base features hagiographic bas-reliefs dedicated to the sovereign and her connection to the arts.