Piazza Malatesta is named after the castle of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini from 1432 to 1468. The castle combines a celebrating splendour with defensive necessities. Once a great moat was all around it.
In the past, for many years, instead of the moat there had been a parking place where on Wednesday and Saturday the weekly market took place. Since 2015 a new project of renovation has started and since 2018 Piazza Malatesta has returned to its Renaissance perspective thanks to the recent redevelopment works and the new lighting of the 'Court at Sea' just outside the castle that has transformed the space into a new area for the enhancement of the artistic heritage and socialization of the city. 
The moat that surrounded the castle is now used as public green, at the end of which you reach, through the staircase, the Piazza Anfiteatro Francesca da Rimini, structured as an open-air amphitheater.
Today the 'new' Piazza Malatesta covers an area of over 11,000 square meters, and after several coordinated interventions, in 2021 has become the square of dreams of theFellini Museum dedicated to the genius of the world famous film director Federico Fellini. This large urban area with installations evoking Fellini's vision, has become a connective space of extraordinary value, a platform of beauty, among greenery, history, art and cinema. Actually this square acts not only as a connective tissue but also as a creative 'fil rouge' between the castle and the Fulgor cinema, the two buildings of extraordinary architectural and symbolic value, which are part of the three sections of the Fellini Museum.
In this way Piazza Malatesta becomes a visual and interactive experience that characterises the spaces of daily relations for residents and guests and exalts the Castle's grandeur while also giving the scene back to the new Galli Theatre.

The square of dreams: on this renewed urban layout three are the main areas: the Water Veil, the Circus of Life, and the part inspired by the 'Amarcord' countryside and by Tonino Guerra's illuminations.
The area between the front of the Castle and the Galli Theater, evokes the ancient castle grandeur and the suggestions of the transatlantic Rex in Amarcord, thanks to the artifice of a blade of water and a system of nebulization.
The area that runs next to the Galli Theater is transformed into the Circus of Life, the 8 and ½ track with a large circular bench in the center and a series of luminous circles that hold together all the identifying places of the historic center: Sismondo Castle, Part - Palazzi dell'Arte Rimini, Galli Theater, Palazzo del Fulgor.
The urban woodland calling to mind the rural scenes in the film Amarcord, marks the symbolic point where the nearby Rimini countryside touches the historical city. The installation that refers to suspended project no. 4, "The coloured valley", by Tonino Guerra and designed by the poet and screenwriter from Santarcangelo, is that of the 3 giant lanterns, the 7 stone flowers and the stone bench. The lanterns, light sculptures made of wrought iron and glass, are dedicated to the Russian writer Lev Tolstoy, while the 7 flowers are engraved with the names of Guerra's friends, including Fellini and Giulìetta Masina.

Not far from Piazza Cavour on the rear side of the Podestà Palas still stands the bell tower of the ancient cathedral of Santa Colomba.