Convert Are (a) to Plaza (plaza) instantly.
About these units
Are (a)
An are is a metric land unit equal to 100 m², originally invented during the development of the metric system but now largely overshadowed by the hectare (100 ares). Although rarely used independently in modern measurement, the are survives in real estate transactions in parts of Europe, where small land parcels—such as garden plots or rural homesteads—may be expressed in ares. It remains important historically, as it served as a transitional unit bridging the earliest metric innovations with modern large-scale land measurement practices.
Plaza (plaza)
A plaza is a traditional Spanish area unit, historically used in various regions of Latin America and Spain. Its value varied widely by locality—commonly ranging between 2,700 and 3,000 square meters—depending on the colonial or municipal standards in effect at the time. The plaza's origin is linked to urban planning under Spanish colonial rule. Town centers in Spanish America were often designed around a central plaza, and surrounding parcels were measured using plaza-based units, embedding the measurement into the cultural fabric of settlement. In agricultural contexts, plazas were sometimes used to define modest landholdings such as gardens, homestead plots, or small fields. While largely replaced by metric units today, the plaza remains significant in historical cartography, land deeds, and anthropological studies of Iberian and colonial town development. It stands as a reminder that measurements often evolve out of cultural-practical needs rather than pure geometric abstraction.