Mediterranean Interior Design
What Is a Loggia? Mediterranean Design Defined
Ask ten people what a loggia is and you’ll get a few different answers. The core idea is simple enough: a roofed gallery, open to the air on at least one side, held up by columns or arches. It gives a building a shaded outdoor room.
The form grew out of Italian town squares and Renaissance villas. Apartment blocks in some countries now use the word for a recessed balcony, which stretches it a long way from the original.
Many references say this kind of gallery opens only from inside a building. Florence’s Loggia dei Lanzi disproves that rule: it is a gallery of its own that opens straight onto Piazza della Signoria.
What is a loggia?
It sits halfway between indoors and outdoors. The roof and back wall come from the building, and the open side faces a garden, courtyard or square, with columns or arches carrying the load along that edge.
How dictionaries define a loggia
- Merriam-Webster describes a roofed open gallery, especially at an upper story overlooking an open court.
- Collins, in its British English entry, gives a covered area on the side of a building that serves as a porch, and also an open balcony in a theatre.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture is wordier. It has a roofed structure open on at least one side, essentially a gallery, arcade or colonnade that gives a protected seat with a view.
- Britannica Dictionary keeps it short: an area on the side of a building with a roof and one open side.
Roof plus open side is the common core. Floor level, shape and access change from one source to the next.
Where the word loggia comes from
English borrowed loggia from Italian, which took it from Old French loge. Etymonline traces that root to a Frankish word for shelter, and Wiktionary lists loggia as a doublet of lodge and lobby.
Dating the English word is less settled.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives 1742 as its earliest evidence (a passage in Defoe’s Tour, in an entry first published in 1903 and not fully revised), and Merriam-Webster also gives 1742. Collins places the word in the 17th century.
Every source agrees the word is Italian in origin. The argument is only about when English writers started using it.
The parts that make up a loggia
Structurally, a loggia comes down to a row of columns or arches on the open side, a roof or vault overhead, a floor and a back wall. Upper-floor loggias add a balustrade on top of that.
Columns and arches
The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence is the textbook case, with a loggia of nine semicircular arches on slender columns, raised above a wide flight of steps (Britta Hentschel, e-flux Architecture). Brunelleschi began it in 1419.
Sources disagree on the column order. Hentschel calls the columns Corinthian, while Wikipedia’s entry on the building lists them as Composite.
Arches carry the load across wide openings and set the rhythm of the open side, and the columns or piers beneath them fix the bay width and the proportions of the gallery.
The Loggia dei Lanzi, built 1376 to 1382 according to RIBA, uses Corinthian capitals on its clustered supports.
Ceiling and vaulting
Designing Buildings describes a loggia as a roofed or vaulted gallery, so flat and vaulted ceilings both count.
Brunelleschi covered each bay of the Innocenti loggia with a shallow dome instead of a flat ceiling.
The roof can carry a second use. Once the Uffizi went up behind the Loggia dei Lanzi, Bernardo Buontalenti turned its roof into a terrace where the Medici princes watched ceremonies in the piazza (Wikipedia).
Balustrade, floor and back wall
A balustrade closes the open edge of an upper-floor loggia. Ground-level ones often rely on steps instead, as at the Innocenti, which stands several steps above its square.
A finished floor is what makes the space a place to sit. Architerms reduces the idea to a roofed room with a floor and no outer wall.
The back wall is simply the building’s own wall, with doors from interior rooms opening onto the gallery.
Supports and a roof over an open side are the constant parts. Period decides things like vaulting and balustrades.
Where does a loggia sit in a building?
On the ground floor or an upper floor, attached to a facade or standing alone. Most face a courtyard or a garden, and some face a square.
Ground-floor and upper-floor loggias
Merriam-Webster singles out the upper story overlooking an open court, and Wikipedia says a loggia is often on an upper level.
Ground level happens too. Designing Buildings notes that a loggia is sometimes found there, and the Innocenti is one, with its arcade a few steps above the square.
Italian usage adds one more position. The word also covers a small garden structure or house built on a residence’s roof, open on one or more sides to catch cooling winds and the view (Wikipedia).
Attached and freestanding loggias
The Loggia dei Lanzi went up between 1376 and 1382 as its own building on a corner of Piazza della Signoria, to house assemblies of the people and public ceremonies (RIBA).
Most loggias in houses and palazzi work the other way. They run along a facade or face an inner court, and they open off interior rooms (Designing Buildings, Centsational Style).
One detail splits the sources. Architerms says a loggia is recessed into the building volume, while Collins accepts one built into or projecting from the side of a building.
I’d treat the roof and the open side as the defining traits, along with the structural link to the building. Recessed versus projecting is a variant.
Double loggias
A double loggia stacks one loggia directly above another (Wikipedia).
Palladio’s Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza wraps a medieval town hall in two tiers, Doric on the ground floor and Ionic above. Shops sit behind the lower arcade (Ancient History Sites).
Study.com describes the urban pattern as commerce at ground level and a more privileged setting on the loggia above.
How does a loggia differ from a balcony, veranda, portico and arcade?
Each of the others differs from a loggia in where it sits and how you get to it. A loggia is built into the building, usually entered from inside, and meant for staying in rather than passing through.
| Structure | Position | Entered from | Roofed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loggia | Recessed or attached, runs along the wall | Inside, usually | Yes |
| Balcony | Projects from the wall | Inside | Normally no |
| Veranda | Added around the outside of a house | Outside | Yes |
| Portico | Projects at the entrance | Outside | Yes |
| Arcade | Row of arches along a passage | Walked through | Yes |
A balcony sticks out from the wall and is normally open to the sky. Architerms uses projection and cover to separate it from a loggia, which is recessed and always roofed.
Veranda definitions wobble a bit. Architerms describes a lighter, often timber platform added around a dwelling at ground level, while AllDifferences describes a glass-walled structure instead.
If you want the wider family of outdoor spaces sorted out, there’s a separate guide on how a porch, balcony and veranda differ.
A portico marks the entrance and often carries a pediment, as on the Pantheon in Rome. Designing Buildings notes that a loggia is reached only from inside.
The Oxford dictionary of architecture calls a loggia essentially a gallery, arcade or colonnade, so the line between the last two comes down to function. You walk through an arcade. You occupy a loggia.
When a space is hard to classify, these questions help.
- Is it entered from inside the building? Yes points to a loggia or balcony. No points to a veranda or portico.
- Does it sit under the building’s roof, or stick out from the wall? Recessed and roofed points to a loggia. Projecting and open to the sky points to a balcony.
- Is it a place to stay, or a place to pass through? Staying points to a loggia. Passing through points to an arcade or portico.
Question 1 breaks on freestanding civic loggias such as the Loggia dei Lanzi, which open straight onto a public square.
Origin is a weaker test than any of the three. Tommaso Formenton surrounded the old palace in Vicenza with loggias in 1481 to 1494, and Palladio rebuilt them from 1549 (Wikipedia), so a loggia added to an existing building still counts.
Where the loggia comes from and what it was used for
Italian town squares got there first. The loggia began as a shaded civic and market space, then turned into a private room for feasting and display during the Renaissance, so its use moved from justice and trade to family ceremony and leisure.
Traditional Building magazine puts the contrast plainly: on a piazza the loggia proclaimed civic virtue, and in a private house it served as a place of feasting and fashion.
Civic and market loggias
Nearly every Italian comune had an open arched loggia in its main square from the early Middle Ages, according to James Ackerman’s 1966 book on Palladio. It stood for communal justice and government and doubled as a stage for ceremony.
Judicial proceedings took place in loggias such as those of the Palazzo del Comune in Todi, per a study of early communal Italy titled “Political Portico”.
Orsanmichele in Florence began as a grain-market loggia with a granary above, and two of its piers are hollow so grain could pass between floors (Web Gallery of Art, Florence-on-line).
Markets, courts and public meetings all needed covered space attached to the square (Architerms).
Where the form started is less settled. Centsational Style and Study.com trace it to Roman villas and public buildings, while Designing Buildings and Ackerman anchor the Italian tradition in the early Middle Ages.
Renaissance palazzo and villa loggias
The Rucellai wedding feast of 1466 seated 500 guests on a dais that filled the Loggia Rucellai, the piazza and the street in front of Palazzo Rucellai (Wikipedia).
A private family built it, yet it worked in public view. Traditional Building adds that the same loggia sheltered passers-by on ordinary days and was draped in tapestries for family banquets.
In a palazzo the loggia faced the courtyard (Architerms). Villas turned it toward the surrounding countryside, and Palladio used loggias to organise whole villa facades (Architerms).
Designing Buildings says rich noble households later adopted the loggia as an outside lounge area. Study.com adds that owning one signalled wealth.
Loggias in homes today
Modern houses keep one job from the villa loggia: a shaded room for eating and sitting.
Centsational Style describes the residential loggia of today as a living or dining space with fresh air and garden views.
The same idea sits behind many outdoor spaces designed in a Mediterranean style: a roofed room that opens to the air.
Famous loggias and what each one shows
These run from a papal gallery to a market, and every one comes with a sourced date or size.
- The Loggia of Raphael in the Vatican has 13 bays on the second floor of the Damasus Courtyard’s west wing, frescoed by Raphael’s workshop in 1518 to 1519 (Eclectic Light Company).
- Villa Farnesina in Rome has 5 arches on the ground floor, now enclosed by protective glass, frescoed with the Cupid and Psyche cycle in 1518 (Villa Farnesina, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei).
- Building on the Palazzo della Loggia in Brescia began in 1492, and the upper part was finished around 1570 (Turismo Brescia).
- Palladio designed the Palazzo del Capitaniato in Vicenza in 1565, and it was built in 1571 to 1572 (Comune di Vicenza).
- Florence’s Loggia del Mercato Nuovo was built around 1547 to 1551 for silk and luxury goods (Florence RockinArt).
The Mercato Nuovo date is not settled. The Library of Congress holds an Alinari print captioned 1549 to 1551.
| Loggia | Role | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Loggia of Raphael | Papal gallery | Open gallery frescoed bay by bay |
| Villa Farnesina | Villa entrance | Vault painted as a pergola |
| Palazzo della Loggia | Town hall | Loggia in front, offices behind |
| Palazzo del Capitaniato | Official seat | Vaulted loggia carries the hall above |
| Loggia del Mercato Nuovo | Market | Silk trade first, leather goods today |
The Mercato Nuovo changed what it sold more than once. Silk and luxury goods came first, then straw hats. Today it’s mainly leather goods and souvenirs (Wikipedia).
Where the standard definition of a loggia breaks down
The standard definition works for most Italian loggias, then starts to bend. Some loggias are the building itself, some were glazed later, apartment blocks use the word loosely, and cold climates strain the whole idea.
When the loggia is the building
The Oxford dictionary of architecture calls a loggia usually part of a building and subsidiary to the whole. It then lists the Sala Terrena in the Valdstejn Gardens in Prague as a loggia of immense scale and overwhelming presence.
Brescia goes further. Its Palazzo della Loggia has a loggia across the front and offices at the back, and the large arcades open on three sides (Wikipedia).
The word then names the whole building. The Loggia Palace in Koper, Slovenia, took its name from the earlier loggia it replaced on the same site (Wikipedia).
When a loggia is glazed
Smarthistory says the Rucellai loggia is no longer an open loggia, because it is glazed and used as a shop.
Apartment developers see it differently. Signature Estates, a Polish developer, lists glazing as the most popular modification of a loggia and still calls the result a loggia.
Both views hold in their own context. A heritage loggia is judged by its open side, an apartment loggia by its recess and roof.
Villa Farnesina’s loggia keeps its name behind protective glass. In practice the name follows the original design, not the current state of the open side.
Apartment loggias
In the apartment sense, a loggia is a recess in the building, open on at least one side, with walls on its other sides and the ceiling of the floor above as its roof (Signature Estates).
No columns are required, so the screen of columns or arches that defines the Italian form drops out.
Wikipedia notes that in Russia and Switzerland, loggia can mean a recessed balcony on a residential apartment building.
Permits add another wrinkle. Bulgarian zoning law, as summarised by the law firm Stankov, Todorov, Hinkov and Spasov, requires a building permit to glaze a terrace but not to glaze a balcony or loggia.
Cold and wet climates
An open gallery earns its place where shade matters more than shelter.
Architerms makes the point in its history of the form: in a warm climate the priority is shade rather than enclosure, and English Palladianism carried the loggia to a climate that suited it much less.
Loggia FAQ
How do you pronounce loggia?
American English usually says LOH-jee-uh, and British English says LOJ-ee-uh. Italian is closer to LAWD-jah, with a doubled d (Dictionary.com, Wikipedia).
What is the plural of loggia?
English dictionaries list loggias and loggie, the second being the Italian-style form (Dictionary.com, Collins). Italian itself uses logge for the plural.
Is a loggia the same as a patio, terrace or pergola?
No. A loggia is roofed and built into the building, while a patio is paved ground with no roof and a terrace is an open platform.
A freestanding pergola has an open lattice top instead of a solid roof.
How much does it cost to build a loggia?
No single price applies, because a loggia ranges from a column-framed extension to a recess planned into a new build. Size, support material (stone, brick or timber) and structural work set the budget.
For a starting figure, run the numbers through a calculator for home renovation costs.
What to Check Before Planning a Loggia at Home
Settle the structure first, meaning a recess in the building or a projecting slab. After that comes the legal category (loggia, balcony or terrace under local zoning), and only then the question of whether you keep it open or glaze it.
Structure goes first because it fixes what you can change afterwards. The legal category comes before the glazing decision since it determines whether glazing needs approval at all.
A loggia also holds a thermal advantage over a balcony. Signature Estates notes that a balcony slab passing through the wall insulation forms a thermal bridge, while a loggia sits inside the heated envelope.
The catch is floor area. A loggia is recessed into the building, so it takes space from the interior instead of adding space outside it.
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