It is the only space in Venice called ’Piazza’ - all the others are campi (Venetian squares) - because it wanted to be unique even in name. Trapezoidal, one hundred and seventy-five metres long, it is enclosed on three sides by the porticoes of the Procuratie, which compulsorily housed the residences of the Procurators, the Republic’s highest magistracy after the Doge.