The present-day Piazza del Mercato (Market-place) follows the original lay-out of a Roman amphitheatre dating back to the II century A.D. The original elliptical shape of the arena is still clearly visible. In its heyday it was composed of 54 arches of 2 superimposed rows and lay outside the circuit of the walls (northwards) for reasons of security and civil order. The original measurements however are difficult to establish with certainty. Alterations to the original structure were made from the VI century onwards when the Christians pulled down everything that their pagan predecessors had erected. In all probability it was S. Frediano himself, archbishop of Lucca in the VI century A.D., who prompted the Lucchesi to dismantle all monuments linked to the pagan world. In the churches of S. Frediano, S. Alessandro and S. Maria "Forisportam" important remains of the amphitheatre can be seen. Between the XII and the XIV centuries, after having been plundered by the barbarians, all that was left of the amphitheatre was its bare structure. In this period the amphitheatre was temporarily used as a jail called "Prisons of the Stone". In the XVI century the prison was used as a warehouse stocking nitro and salt. In 1715 several important structural parts of the amphitheatre were dismantled and used to redecorate the chapel of S.Zita. Then in 1810 the slaughter houses were shifted from Via Beccheria to the amphitheatre. It was then that a plaque with a Latin inscription was found, which was of great importance in establishing the origins of the amphitheatre. In 1819 the historian Enrico Ridolfi and the famous architect Lorenzo Nottolini born in Segromigno, a small village in the province of Lucca, examined the structure of the amphitheatre and took measurements of it. Carlo Ludovico Duke of Lucca, had the market transferred from Piazza S. Michele to the Roman amphitheatre and it was proclaimed that on this site "A square was to be built whose measurements and shape were to be those of the ancient arena". All gardens and vegetable plots were to be removed as they were of hindrance. Restoration of the square was completed in 1838. The central piazza was paved and four entrances or gateways were built at the end points of two axes. In 1930 a wholesale fruit and vegetable market was situated in the Piazza. In 1972 the fruit and vegetable market was removed from the amphitheatre and set up in its new premises.