Piazza Umberto I

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Piazza Umberto I is Capri’s most famous square. Also called Piazza Umberto Primo in the 1930s and nicknamed La Piazzetta or “the little square,” it sits in the historic center of Capri town on the island’s eastern end. For a long time it has been the town’s meeting place.

The 18th‑century church of Santo Stefano became a cathedral when Capri’s bishop set up his seat there. A staircase connects the church to the square and to the bishop’s residence, which is now the town hall. The bishopric was dissolved in 1818, and Capri became part of the Diocese of Sorrento.

The square was already the center of daily life, with vegetable, fish, and meat markets around 1900. It became more lively socially after Raffaele Vuotto opened the Grand Café Vuotto (1934–1938), putting chairs and tables outside. Other islanders opened businesses, and the Piazzetta became the island’s social heart.

The clock tower is the main feature and a symbol of Capri. The square has several inscriptions: outside the town hall are plaques honoring Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I; another plaque recalls Caprese Gennaro Arcucci, a martyr of the Bourbon restoration. A plaque also marks the World War I fallen. In the City Hall courtyard, plaques from 1908 remember Henry Wreford, a Times reporter who settled in Capri for fifty years, and George Sidney Clark, who opened the Grand Hotel Quisisana in 1861.