Markets
Build a market square as it was in different cultures: rows of stalls with cloths and goods, a well, fountain or pavilion in the middle and sometimes a gallery or fence around the square. Choose a Dutch market square, the Christmas market of Nuremberg, the Roman macellum of Pompeii with its tholos, the great market of Tlatelolco of the Aztecs, a square with a fountain and gallery or a Chinese market street with a gate. At the bottom you can read how everything is calculated.
Point at a block for the explanation. Click a block to mark it as placed. The side view shows the section at the chosen column, Layer shows the chosen layer from above.
Build plan
Per layer
| Layer | Parts | Blocks |
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A number is the count of blocks of that part in that layer, in the colour of the part. Click a layer to see it from above.
Build tips
- Put crafts together as they were: in a town, smiths, bakers and weavers often had their own street. Think of Smith Lane or Tanners’ Row.
- Every villager profession in Minecraft has its own workstation. A building with the right workstations does double duty when villagers live in it.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the market as a schematic file and paste it with WorldEdit, or build it with a hologram in Litematica.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
Market square and market rights
In the Middle Ages a town could only hold a market with a right from the lord or the king. The square often had a well or a market cross, and the weigh house, where goods were weighed, was the most important building. The cheese market of Alkmaar with its weigh house has a tradition of centuries. Stalls were of wood and cloth and were put up anew every market day.
Macellum, tianguis and market street
The Romans had a macellum, a market hall around a square with a round tholos with a fountain in the middle; the one in Pompeii has been preserved. The Aztecs held a market every day in Tlatelolco: Hernán Cortés wrote that sixty thousand people came. In China the Qingming scroll from the twelfth century shows a busy market street with stalls along the river.
Did you know?
- A macellum often had a tholos in the middle, a round pavilion on columns.
- The Qingming scroll is more than five metres long and shows hundreds of people and stalls.
- The weigh house of Alkmaar is one of the best-known cheese markets in the world.
Sources and further reading
Read more about the history here. The links go to museums, archives and heritage organisations outside this site.
- Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of Pompeii, with among other things the macellum. - Hanseatic City of Lübeck (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Description of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck with its market square.
About this tool
With this planner you build a market square in Minecraft, in the style of one of five cultures. You choose the size, the number of rows of stalls, the middle of the square and the edge around it.
You see the build plan layer by layer, a 3D preview and the block list, and you can download the market as a schematic for WorldEdit or Litematica.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a market in Minecraft?
Choose a culture, set the width and depth of the square and the number of rows of stalls. Choose what goes in the middle, such as a well or fountain, and whether a gallery or fence surrounds it. Each stall has four posts, a cloth, a counter and goods. Build the square and the middle first, then the stalls.
Which goods can I choose?
Fruit and vegetables, cloth and wool, carpets, pottery, spices, fish, copper and metal, or mixed. The goods stand on the counter and with mixed they change per stall, so the square looks busy and varied.
Which cultures are there?
Five: the market square with a well (Netherlands, Germany, England), the Roman macellum with tholos, the Aztec tianguis with a stepped platform, the square with gallery and fountain, and the Chinese market street with a gate. Examples include Alkmaar, Nuremberg, Pompeii, Tlatelolco and the Qingming scroll.