The square itself — its name means Field of Flowers — was a meadow outside the medieval city before it became a market, a place of execution, and eventually Rome's liveliest evening piazza. The hooded statue of Giordano Bruno stands at its centre, commemorating the philosopher burned here in 1600. By morning the square fills with the flower and vegetable stalls of one of Rome's oldest markets; by night the surrounding bars take over and the whole neighbourhood hums with conversation.
The lanes radiating out from the square — Via dei Cappellari, Vicolo del Biscione, Via del Pellegrino — contain some of the most atmospheric streets in the old city: narrow, slightly medieval, dotted with small trattorias and wine bars. The neighbourhood borders both the Jewish Ghetto to the east and the Tiber bend to the west, placing it at the centre of Rome's densest concentration of Renaissance and baroque architecture. Palazzo Farnese faces the square from its own piazza just to the south, its façade unfinished to a design by Michelangelo.