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piață - it means both "Square" and "Market" depending on location

David-Herron
United States of America

piață - it means both "Square" and "Market" depending on location

Post by David-Herron »

Reference sentence: "Sâmbătă noi găsim un restaurant în piață."

Duolingo claims: Saturday we find a restaurant in the square.

Discussion with lots of confusion: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/19846548

However, I know from experience in Romania that piață also means traditional markets. Here's a few links:

https://goo.gl/maps/dkJWq8uQ3hJiEvq56 - Piața Centrală in Craiova

https://goo.gl/maps/nrJiGHGvpy8FK41u8 -- Piața Gării in Craiova

https://goo.gl/maps/2oVfLCcv9xq1thSV6 -- Piața Domenii in Bucharest

https://goo.gl/maps/qErkrtbivuVV7ZsJ7 -- PIAȚA OBOR in Bucharest
https://goo.gl/maps/HGGPnjSfUkeZXWj68 -- Bucur Obor

The last is a massive complex of shops spread out over a couple blocks, so it's difficult to know where precisely to place the map for the best understanding.

I wrote the following on the Duolingo Forums some time ago.

Having been to a few cities in Romania ... I'll use some localities in Bucharest for example.

Piata Chibrit today is a major intersection, with a metro station, multiple bus and streetcar lines, and more. I have looked at old maps of that area and have seen no indication that the center part of that area ever had a market. However, a little ways from the intersection there was (on my first trip in 2013) a tent-like structure in which there was a small "market" with sellers of vegetables and other stuff. On subsequent trips that "market" wasn't there but, there was a building being constructed which I think is meant to replace the old market.

Hence - Piata Chibrit isn't a good example of a former market turned into a public square.

Piata Domeni, Piata Una Mai, Piata Obor, and other locations, are still active Markets with lots of sellers in booths.

Piata Universitatii, Piata Romana, and other locations, possibly were in the past market locations, but are today major intersections along Bulevardul Magheru

In other words, there are many locations in Bucharest named Piata __ which are simply major intersections, or else public squares. It's not clear whether those locations were ever Markets.

I've seen old pictures from Bucharest of Markets in locations that I know are not Markets today. For example - the modern location called Piata Unirii was the core of Ceasescu's grand plan to remake Bucherest by bulldozing what sounds like a wonderful old neighborhood. Piata Unirii is where the dancing/singing fountains (a wonderful sight to experience) exist. But it seems there was a Market there decades ago. The closest to a market today is the Unirea Shopping Center and the Cocor shopping center a little ways away.

Other locations were probably old markets that got replaced by the road system. In other cases the old markets are still operating.

Piata Revolutiei was so named because that's the core location of the December 1989 revolution.

In Craiova -- I do not recall locations named Piata ___ except for the two large markets. Piata Centrala and Piata Garii (near the train station). Not even the location known as Rotonda today, so named because of a round building that is today a bank but in the past was a market.

Well, there is Piata Mihai Viteazul, the large open area in front of the County Building. There is a statue near that of Mihai Viteazul on a horse. Occasionally there are small shops on the square but I wouldn't call it an operating market. Instead, there is a big montrosity building next to it named La Mercur that is like a shopping center, but is multiple individually operated small shops.

David-Herron
United States of America

Re: piață - it means both "Square" and "Market" depending on location

Post by David-Herron »

Here's an example of the confusion: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/29554143

Sentence: "Piața este plină de oameni."
Translation:The market is full of people.

The forum post has a comment that the person was just in Piața Unirii and there's no market in sight. And, yes, that location is a beautiful place, with amazing fountains, and a grand boulevard leading to the biggest administrative building in the world, etc.

What the person does not know is that 40-50 years ago (and prior) there was what sounds like a beautiful wonderful lively neighborhood in that vicinity, and there very likely was a large market there. But, Nicolae Ceasescu had a grand plan to make a vast city scape showing off the wonders of communism or some such, and he bulldozed everything, and built that big building, and so forth. Those fountains are wonderful, but they came at the cost of killing a beautiful neighborhood.

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