Piazza Dante (Naples)

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Piazza Dante is a large public square in Naples, Italy, named for the poet Dante Alighieri. The square is dominated by a 19th-century statue of the poet, sculpted by Tito Angelini. Originally, the square was called, simply, Largo del Mercatello (Market Square). In 1765, it was rechristened "Foro Carolina," after the wife of the King of Naples. At that time, the original square was modified by architect Luigi Vanvitelli. Modifications included the construction of an ornate semicircular arrangement of columns and statues that now look down on the square. They now mark the western side of a boarding school named for Victor Emanuel II. Vanvitelli, with his changes, essentially converted what had been the rear of a large, pre-existing and ancient monastery into the front of the "new" structure.