Columns and Chestnuts: Italian Style Town

罗马柱下春风渡，海河桥头意韵长 Luómǎzhù xià chūnfēng dù, Hǎihé qiáotóu yì yùn cháng – Spring wind crosses beneath the Roman columns; the Italian air lingers long by the Haihe bridgehead

意式风情区 Yìshì Fēngqíngqū The Italian Style Town is 天津市河北区 Tiānjīn Shì Héběi Qū Hebei District’s quiet showpiece – two streets and a square of early-twentieth-century Mediterranean houses standing where the Italian concession once ran its own little corner of the river city. Villas with terracotta eaves, arcaded loggias and a classical columned square survive on 民族路 Mínzú Lù and 自由道 Zìyóu Dào, five minutes off the Haihe, and the quarter reads today as a film set that people actually live and trade in.

The square is the centerpiece. 马可波罗广场 Mǎkě Bōluó Guǎngchǎng Marco Polo Square puts a peace goddess on a Corinthian column at its center, ringed by the villa fronts that once housed the concession’s shipping agents, and the cafes around it now do the people-watching business the square was built for. A statue of Dante stands a few streets south – the poet the Italian community claimed as its anchor – and the bronze letters on his base still carry his name in both scripts.

The quarter’s second life belongs to its residents. 梁启超 Liáng Qǐchāo kept his 饮冰室 Yǐnbīng Shì study villa here, 曹禺 Cáo Yú the playwright grew up on these lanes, and the restoration boards on each gate tell you which writer, general or shipping family slept behind it. The houses are protected shells now – tea rooms and studios inside, grey-brick laundry courtyards behind – and the mix keeps the quarter walkable without the museum-rope feeling.

Evening is the town’s best hour. The columns catch floodlight, the restaurants along the lanes put their tables out under chestnut trees, and the Haihe embankment a block east hands you the illuminated bridge line for the walk home. Morning has its own case – delivery bikes, sweeping water, sunlight down empty arcades – and both are free.

Practicalities

• The quarter is open street; walking it takes about an hour, more with a cafe stop.
• Metro Line 2 to 建国道 Jiànguó Dào Jianguo Road station puts the south entrance at the exit.
• The villa plaques are in Chinese and English; the Dante statue and Marco Polo Square sign themselves.
• Pair it with the Haihe embankment walk west to 天津之眼 Tiānjīn Zhīyǎn the Tianjin Eye ferris wheel – thirty minutes on foot.

Words and Names

意式风情区 Yìshì Fēngqíngqū the Italian Style Town; 马可波罗广场 Mǎkě Bōluó Guǎngchǎng Marco Polo Square; 饮冰室 Yǐnbīng Shì the Ice-Drinking Study, Liang Qichao’s villa; 民族路 Mínzú Lù Minzu Road, the main villa row; 天津之眼 Tiānjīn Zhīyǎn the Tianjin Eye ferris wheel. Beyond the town, the same 天津市河北区 Tiānjīn Shì Héběi Qū Hebei District keeps more places worth the detour: 望海楼教堂 Wànghǎilóu Jiàotáng the Wanghailou Church, 大悲禅院 Dàbēi Chányuàn the Great Compassion Monastery, 梁启超纪念馆 Liáng Qǐchāo Jìniànguǎn the Liang Qichao Memorial, or 宁园 Níng Yuán Beining Park – four more doors into the same Hebei District. Once the columns have had their hour, our Hebei food map fills the table.

flowcloud would say the Italian Style Town is the concession’s farewell letter, written in columns and terracotta and mailed to the future: a square that kept its goddess, lanes that kept their poets, and a river bank that kept the walk. All checked November 2026.

Getting there: The town’s main entrance sits on Ziyou Road – Metro Line 2 to Jianguo Road station exits onto the block, and the columned square signs itself from the gate. All checked November 2026.