LOGGIA. – An open gallery on the upper floors of buildings, almost always featuring arches, rarely an entablature. In church architecture it appears as a development of the pre-Romanesque motif of a series of niches or suspended arches, motivated by the structural need to lighten the masonry and, at the same time, by the aesthetic intent of giving movement to the surfaces.
The earliest examples date from the 11th century, in the tiburium of the chapel of S. Aquilino near S. Lorenzo in Milan and in the apse of S. Sofia in Padua, where arches on piers are used; then, lightened by the use of small columns, it becomes extremely common in the Lombard architecture of the 12th century, in apses (S. Giacomo and S. Fedele in Como; S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo) and in facades, where it follows the eaves of the roof (S. Michele in Ciel d’oro in Pavia) or marks a horizontal break (cathedral of Cremona). Lombard craftsmen spread its use in northern and central Italy (apse of the cathedral of Murano), where in the cathedrals of Modena, Piacenza and Ferrara it becomes a dominant motif encircling the entire building; it becomes typical of Pisan architecture, which uses it frequently in multiple tiers on facades (cathedral and S. Paolo a Ripa d’Arno in Pisa; S. Michele in Foro in Lucca; S. Paolo in Pistoia, etc.). It was also adopted beyond the Alps, especially in the Rhineland (S. Castor in Coblenz; cathedrals of Speyer, Mainz and Bonn). During the 13th century it was also used on bell towers, either only at the crown (cathedral of Cremona) or in multiple tiers (tower of Pisa; cathedral of Pistoia); but its use became increasingly rare with the rise of Gothic forms, and few examples can be cited on facades (Santo in Padua), in apses (cathedral of Trent), or in tiburia (abbey of Chiaravalle); however, in the late 15th-century Lombard style they were again widely used (certosa of Pavia; cathedral of Bergamo; S. Maria delle Grazie in Cremona), even by Bramante himself (S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan).
Not motivated by ornamental or structural reasons, but by religious necessities, are the loggias of benediction that surmount the entrances of the principal Roman basilicas and are spacious enough to accommodate the Pope with his retinue. Linked to the memory of the first Jubilee is the loggia that stood near the basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano, commissioned on that occasion by Boniface VIII; this one, and the one that probably already existed at S. Peter’s, were rebuilt during the reconstruction of the two basilicas. The solemn architectural motif was repeated also in churches annexed to the major cardinalatial palaces, not only in the Renaissance (SS. Apostoli, S. Marco) but even into the 17th century (S. Maria in Via Lata). A grand 18th-century example is that of S. Maria Maggiore (1748), in which the airiness of the loggia is accentuated by the heavy masses of the flanking buildings; a very recent one is that of S. Maria degli Angeli in Assisi.
Loggias serving practical needs for the circulation of spaces are found in cloisters (v.), similarly to those used in civil architecture for courtyards, of which it would be superfluous to cite the countless examples from all periods. On the facades of palaces loggias appear already in the 13th century, as in Rome in the ancient senatorial palace and especially in Venice, where they become a dominant motif: typical expressions are the Doge’s Palace, the Library of Sansovino, and the Baroque Palazzo Rezzonico. Both in courtyards and on facades the loggias were enriched with decoration.
LOGGIA. – L. of the apse of the cathedral of Piacenza (mid-12th century).
It covers an area of 6,040 sq. km and has 1,100,000 inhabitants, of whom one million are Catholics; 138 parishes served by 238 diocesan priests and 76 religious, 17 male religious communities and 62 female ones; 1 male educational institute and 3 female ones, 20 charitable and welfare works (Ann. Pontificio, 1951, p. 252). Diocesan priests who perished during the German occupation: 128 in prison or concentration camps. In the 14th century L. belonged to the bishops of Wloclawek (Wladislavia); in the 15th century it was elevated to city status. From the 19th century it was one of the principal centers of the textile industry, for which it was called the “Polish Manchester.” In Pabianice there is a Gothic church of S. Matteo (1588) and a 15th-century castle in the Italian Renaissance style. In Piotrków there are: a 14th-century Gothic church of Our Lady; a 14th-century church and cloister of the Dominicans; a 17th-century former-Bernardine church; an 18th-century church of S. Francesco Saverio; a 14th-century castle; a town hall of 1580. From the 15th to the 16th century Piotrków was the seat of several synods, and in 1577 the decrees of the Council of Trent were promulgated there. From the 15th century the Sejm (Parliament) gathered in Piotrków, and from 1578 it was the seat of the royal tribunal.