Adjacent to Piazza Cavour is Piazza Sant'Antonio, whose area was once occupied by the Franciscan convent of the Friars Minor, which arose starting in the 13th century.

The new paving has revealed the plan of the 13th-century church of Santa Caterina or of an older late-medieval chapel that once stood in the center of the cloister, which also included the porticoes that still line three sides of the square. It was during the 17th century, when the complex underwent major transformations, that the legend arose that its foundation was attributed to Saint Anthony of Padua. After the suppressions of Joseph II, at the beginning of the 19th century the monastery was transformed first into a barracks and then into a hospital for Napoleon's troops.

with the consequent demolition of the church dedicated to Saint Francis. In 1825, the new purchaser of the complex, Giacomo Vogel, erected a new chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony in the left corner of the old portico. His statue, already located in the center of the square, was inserted into a niche created above the arch in front of the entrance.

On the opposite side of the square stands Palazzo Strassoldo, now home to the Entourage hotel, and next to it the cloistered monastery of the Poor Clares.