# Loggia
A loggia is a roofed gallery that forms part of a building but is open along one or more sides, the opening framed by a run of arches or columns; it is usually raised on a plinth or set at an upper level[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia). The form is neither wholly inside nor wholly outside: it gives shade without darkness and shelter without enclosure, which is why it belongs above all to warm climates[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia). A loggia can extend along a building's facade, fill one end of a courtyard, or exist as a detached civic building that opens onto a public square[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Definition | Roofed space forming part of a building, open on at least one long side through an arcade or colonnade, usually raised on a plinth or at an upper level[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia) |
| Structural identity | Built into the masonry of the building and part of its primary architecture, unlike an attached veranda[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia) |
| Ancestors | Greek stoa, Roman portico and peristyle; medieval Italian towns kept the form for markets, courts, and public assemblies[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia) |
| Civic example | Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, built 1376–1382 to house assemblies of the people and hold public ceremonies[2](https://whc.unesco.org/document/169993) |
| Climatic use | In Yazd, Iran, the loggia (talar or eyvan) is a semi-open space closed on three sides and on top, open to the courtyard, used as a passive cooling element[3](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210670715300044) |
| Ventilation effect | A loggia reduces the average windward air change rate by 27%, though one wind direction forms a vortex that directs airflow into the opening[4](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132316301044) |
| Modern conservation | The Vatican began a five-year, $5.5 million restoration of the Raphael Loggia in 2026, its first major one in over 500 years[5](https://apnews.com/article/fcdc1c3a4641badd42fe121a56e4cd91) |
## Definition and form
The constant elements are roof, floor, and permanent opening. Remove the roof and the space becomes a terrace; close the opening and it becomes a gallery[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia). The term does not denote any particular dimension: in a Renaissance villa a loggia may extend three bays in depth, whereas Florence's Loggia dei Lanzi functions as a public chamber opening onto a piazza.[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia) [Dictionary](https://www.edgepedia.org/dictionary) definitions agree on the essentials: an exterior gallery, open on one or more sides, with a colonnade or an arcade[6](https://sites.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/loggia.htm), or an arcaded or colonnaded structure, sometimes with an upper story[7](https://www.nyc.gov/site/lpc/about/glossary.page).
The open face does climatic and compositional work. Placed on a building's southern side, a loggia keeps sun off the wall and its windows behind it, chills air passing through the space, and makes the facade's depth usable for people; likewise, a row of open arches appears on the elevation as shadow and depth instead of a flat plane[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia).
## Distinctions from neighboring terms
Because the loggia shares features with several other open-sided elements, the boundaries matter in practice, including for area calculations in apartment design[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia).
- Veranda: a lightweight, frequently wooden, covered structure attached around a house on the ground floor and not load-bearing, whereas a loggia is integrated into the building's masonry and belongs to its core architecture[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia). Designing Buildings states the same distinction: a veranda is attached to the outside of the main building, whereas a loggia forms part of the main architectural structure[8](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Loggia).
- Balcony: projects from the wall and is normally uncovered; a loggia is recessed into the building volume and always roofed[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia).
- Arcade: the row of arches itself, which may be free-standing or applied to a wall; the loggia is the roofed space behind such a row. Most loggias have an arcade, but not every arcade fronts a loggia[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia).
- Cloister: an arcaded passageway surrounding a courtyard on each of its four sides within a monastic structure, whereas a loggia typically runs along only one side and need not belong to a religious layout[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia).
- Portico: roofed, open, and classical in origin like the loggia, but it stands perpendicular to the wall as an entrance feature, while a loggia runs along it[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia). Designing Buildings adds that a portico functions as part of the entrance, whereas a loggia is accessible from inside the building and serves as an additional space, often for leisure[8](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Loggia).
A variation is the double loggia, in which two consecutive floor levels contain loggias[8](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Loggia).
## History
The form's ancestors are the Greek stoa and the Roman portico and peristyle, all ways of putting a colonnaded shelter along the edge of a public or domestic space[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia). In medieval Italy, towns continued the practice out of utility, since markets, law courts, and public gatherings each required sheltered space that remained open to the piazza.[1](https://www.architerms.com/loggia) Open-arched loggias were common in the main squares of public buildings, helping in the performance of ceremonies[8](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Loggia).
**Florence.** The Loggia dei Lanzi, on the [Piazza della Signoria](https://www.edgepedia.org/piazza-della-signoria), was built between 1376 and 1382 to house the assemblies of the people and hold public ceremonies; under Cosimo I it housed the Duke's German mercenary troops, the Lansquenets, from whom it took its name, and over the centuries it became an open-air sculpture gallery holding works such as Cellini's Perseus and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women[2](https://whc.unesco.org/document/169993). Orsanmichele, originally a granary with a grain market on its open first floor, carries a loggia of 1349 with upper stories added in 1380–1404[9](https://smarthistory.org/orsanmichele-and-donatellos-saint-mark-florence/). At the [Ospedale degli Innocenti](https://www.edgepedia.org/ospedale-degli-innocenti), the foundling hospital begun by [Filippo Brunelleschi](https://www.edgepedia.org/filippo-brunelleschi), the loggia served as a threshold and point of communication with the urban environment, and provided a sheltered location, elevated from street level, where parents could leave their children[10](https://smarthistory.org/andrea-della-robbia-bambini-ospedale-degli-innocenti/).
**Residential and regional spread.** In the 17th century loggias became increasingly popular in the residences of rich nobility, often used as outside lounge areas[8](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Loggia). Wealthy residents also built small loggia houses on their roofs to catch cooling winds and enjoy city views[11](https://awedeco.com/what-is-a-loggia/). In [Andrea Palladio](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrea-palladio)'s country villas, the core house-temple is crowned by a pediment supported by the columns of the loggia[12](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/712). The form traveled with Italian architecture: a fifteenth-century Ferrara palace type with a large ground-floor loggia was common enough to be studied as emblematic[13](https://sfera.unife.it/handle/11392/522568), and Motovun, in present-day Croatia, preserves a sixteenth-century municipal loggia built as a belvedere from which the Mirna river valley could be viewed[14](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5104).
## The loggia as passive cooling
The form is not only Italian. In Yazd's hot, dry central Iranian climate, the loggia—called talar or eyvan locally—is a partially open living area set into a building's mass, walled on three sides and roofed over, with its open face giving onto the courtyard; level in plan, usually a little elevated, and positioned at ground floor height[3](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210670715300044). It is one of the main architectural elements of traditional architecture in Iran's hot dry climates, alongside central courtyards, basements, and wind-catchers[3](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210670715300044). A questionnaire survey of 360 residents in Yazd found that around 50 percent of inhabitants of a traditional neighborhood claimed loggias in their dwellings, and the study concluded that the loggia is a popular and likable space and a common element on the south side of vernacular dwellings there, though it is no longer incorporated into new building designs[3](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210670715300044).
The geometry also affects airflow in measurable ways. A computational fluid dynamics study of a low-rise building found that the presence of a loggia reduces the average air change rate by 27 percent, except for one wind direction at which a vortex forms in the loggia and directs the airflow into the opening; the study also found that semi-empirical orifice-equation models fail to predict ventilation rates precisely for large windward-side windows[4](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132316301044).
## Notable examples and current conservation
The Loggia dei Lanzi remains one of Florence's most prominent structures, visited by millions every year[15](https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.02404). In the Vatican, the Raphael Loggia is a 65-meter long, 4-meter wide windowed second-floor corridor in the [Apostolic Palace](https://www.edgepedia.org/apostolic-palace), overlooking the San Damaso courtyard, with 13 arched bays decorated between 1517 and 1519 to Raphael's conception for [Pope Leo X](https://www.edgepedia.org/pope-leo-x); its decoration was widely copied, including a full-scale replica at the [Hermitage Museum](https://www.edgepedia.org/hermitage-museum) in St. Petersburg[5](https://apnews.com/article/fcdc1c3a4641badd42fe121a56e4cd91). Until 1813 the loggia was open to the elements and suffered rain damage, and the later windows trapped heat and humidity, leaving the paintings fragile[5](https://apnews.com/article/fcdc1c3a4641badd42fe121a56e4cd91). In 2026 the Vatican Museums began a five-year, $5.5 million restoration, the first major one in over 500 years, using hand-held lasers for dry cleaning because the paints are water soluble; the project is financed by the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, whose overall contribution exceeds $14 million including digitization, a documentary, and an art-restoration training program[5](https://apnews.com/article/fcdc1c3a4641badd42fe121a56e4cd91).
In contemporary design, loggias function as outdoor living rooms, and enclosing one converts it into a sunroom or conservatory while keeping the original column structure[11](https://awedeco.com/what-is-a-loggia/).
## References
1. [Loggia: Definition, History & Examples, Architerms](https://www.architerms.com/loggia)
2. [The Pre-historical Museum and Institute of Florence "Paolo Graziosi" (Squares and Monuments), UNESCO World Heritage Centre](https://whc.unesco.org/document/169993)
3. [Foruzanmehr, A. (2015). People's perception of the loggia: A vernacular passive cooling system in Iranian architecture. Sustainable Cities and Society 19, 61–67.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210670715300044)
4. [Numerical simulation of wind-driven natural ventilation: Effects of loggia and facade porosity on air change rate. Building and Environment 106, 131–142 (2016).](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360132316301044)
5. [Vatican begins 5-year restoration of Raphael Loggia, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/fcdc1c3a4641badd42fe121a56e4cd91)
6. [Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture: loggia, University of Pittsburgh](https://sites.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/loggia.htm)
7. [Glossary, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission](https://www.nyc.gov/site/lpc/about/glossary.page)
8. [Loggia, Designing Buildings Wiki](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Loggia)
9. [Orsanmichele and Donatello's Saint Mark, Florence, Smarthistory](https://smarthistory.org/orsanmichele-and-donatellos-saint-mark-florence/)
10. [Andrea della Robbia's bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence, Smarthistory](https://smarthistory.org/andrea-della-robbia-bambini-ospedale-degli-innocenti/)
11. [What Is a Loggia? Mediterranean Design Defined, Awedeco](https://awedeco.com/what-is-a-loggia/)
12. [City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, UNESCO World Heritage Centre](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/712)
13. [On the seismic vulnerability of a renaissance "palace with loggia": limit analysis approach, University of Ferrara](https://sfera.unife.it/handle/11392/522568)
14. [City of Motovun, UNESCO World Heritage Centre Tentative List](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5104)
15. [Loggia dei Lanzi: AI Thermography Enhancement Comparisons through 3D Photogrammetry, arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.02404)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Architecture, buildings, and civil works › Buildings and architectural ensembles › Buildings: overview and typology*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
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