The streets in the modern town are regularly laid out; several are arcaded on both sides.
Sofia, a circular edifice of about 760, now modernized, the roof of which is supported by six ancient columns, is a relic of the Lombard period; it has a fine cloister of the 12th century constructed in part of fragments of earlier buildings; while the cathedral with its fine arcaded facade and incomplete square campanile (begun in 1279) dates from the 9th century and was rebuilt in 1114.
About 1309 the arcaded facade along the lagoon front was taken in hand, and set the design for the whole of the external frontage of the palace.
The Procuratie Vecchie is perhaps the longest arcaded façade in the world and certainly shows the least amount of wall space; the whole design is simple, the .moulding and ornamentation severe.
Above the shaft comes the arcaded bell-chamber, frequently built of Istrian stone; and above that again the attic, either round or square or octagonal, carrying either a cone or a pyramid or a cupola, sometimes surmounted by a cross or a gilded angel which serves as a weathercock.
