From Saint Alexander's Field to 18th Century Fairground

Among the functions of every city figure the exchange of goods, from the most basic to the most exotic and rare. To perform this important urban role, a city must select an area that in time will determine the development of the city itself. In this regard, the fairs became an integral part of the region, as well as the daily life and personality of the city. Furthermore, the fairs attracted people and goods from far away lands.
Bergamo, an ancient city, has always had a fair. In fact, we have found reference to the fair in documents dating to the 10th century: the fair was then located on the outside of the Upper City (at that time the political and administrative center of the city) and lacked adequate space for the numerous merchants. As a result, the fair was moved to the foot of the hill, specifically to the field next to the present-day burg of S. Alessandro in Colonna. Later the entire area was baptized Prato di S. Alessandro, or Saint Alexander's Field.
Because of its economic importance, the fair, with everything it entailed in terms of proceeds and taxes, was the object of bitter disputes within the city. Until one day in 1428, the Rectory of Saint Vincent's, which levied duty on the fair, sold the field and tax collection rights on the area to the city of Bergamo. Several years later, in 1475, the City donated these rights and privileges to the Ospedale SS. Maria e Marco, a civic institution founded on the merger of eleven hospitals around the city.
To get an idea of what the fair was like in those years, let us read a report made by the inspectors of the Venetian Republic in 1591: "one shack, set up from one end of the field to the other, was occupied by Milanese merchants, another by cloth merchants, the other near that one by linen sellers [...] another by cords and other straw articles, and for every canton of shacks there were bankers and spice vendors. Behind these shacks followed more boutiques with beautiful oils and soaps."
It was precisely in 1591, and more specifically the night between the 24th and 25th of August, when the fair had been open for two days, that a terrible fire completely destroyed the "sale cabins". As if that weren't enough, the merchants had to put up with pillagers who came to the Field to rob anything the fire hadn't destroyed. In 1730, the memory of the great 1591 Fire, and the increase in merchandise flows, led a group of Bergamask merchants, who had formed a consortium, to propose the construction at their own expense of new stone boutiques to substitute the wood ones. The City granted a permit, providing that the new fair should be erected between the path that led from Saint Bartholomew's Church towards the burg of S. Leonardo and the Hospital.