thumb|200px|The [[Renaissance three-story arcade loggia of the City Hall in Poznań, Poland, served representative and communication purposes.]]

thumb|right|[[Villa Godi by Palladio. The portico is the focal point in the center with loggias used at each side of the structure as a corridor.]]

In architecture, a loggia ( , <small>usually</small> , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only partial, with the upper part usually supported by a series of columns or arches. An overhanging loggia may be supported by a baldresca.

From the early Middle Ages, nearly every Italian comune had an open arched loggia in its main square, which served as a "symbol of communal justice and government and as a stage for civic ceremony".

In Italian architecture, a loggia is also a small garden structure or house built on the roof of a residence, open on one or more sides, to enjoy cooling winds and the view. A "double loggia" occurs when a loggia is located on an upper floor level above a loggia on the floor beneath.

Examples

  • Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, contains three distinct sets of dorms connected by loggias. The main quad on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California, prominently features loggias, as do the University Center and Purnell Center for the Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, which frame a quad known as the Cut.
  • In the city centre of Chester in England, a number of timber-framed buildings dating from the medieval to Victorian periods have first-floor loggias called the Chester Rows.
  • In Russia and Switzerland, a loggia can be a form of recessed balcony on a residential apartment building.
  • A loggia was added to the Sydney Opera House in 2006.
  • At the archeological site of Hagia Triada on the Greek island of Crete, several loggias constructed around 1400 BC have been located and whose column bases still remain.

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File:10 2014 Trento-Castello Buonconsiglio-panorama Loggia veneziana gotica-Col Castion, Doss Trento, Mausoleo Cesare Battisti, Monte Soprasasso, Monte Terlago-ITALY- K-5 II -Tamron AF 17-50mm F2.8-photo Paolo Villa.jpg|The Venetian Gothic loggia of the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento, Italy

File:Edificio La Inmobiliaria (loggia).JPG|The loggia of the Edificio La Inmobiliaria in Buenos Aires, Argentina

File:Santapollinarenuovo.JPG|A mosaic found in the nave of the 6th-century Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, depicts a loggia.

File:2014 02 13 14 09 50 Milano ITALY Pinacoteca di Brera loggia e colonnato del cortile Courtyard photo Paolo Villa FOTO3968.JPG|Loggia in the shape of a Venetian window, at the Palazzo Brera in Milan, Italy

File:Sárospatak - Vár - Perényi-szárny és Lórántffy loggia - panoramio.jpg|The 17th-century Renaissance Lorántffy loggia in the Castle of Sárospatak, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Hungary

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See also

  • Baldresca
  • Five-foot way
  • Madonna della Loggia (Botticelli)
  • Pedway
  • Peristyle
  • Portico
  • Skyway
  • Veranda

References

Bibliography