Hierarch Square

Hierarch Square is the beating heart of Novigrad: a wide, cobbled square ringed by tall, narrow townhouses with steep gables, carved timber fronts and shuttered windows, many of them among the most beautiful houses in the city. Market stalls and trading posts fill the open space, merchants shout over each other, and Temple Guards keep a watchful eye on the crowd. On the eastern side a flight of stone steps climbs to the Kingfisher Inn, the Vivaldi Bank stands nearby, and on execution days the square gains a far grimmer centrepiece: wooden stakes and piles of firewood, ready for the next mage the witch hunters drag out of hiding.

Not long ago a great many mages lived around the square. When the witch hunts began they fled, and many of their elegant townhouses now stand empty and neglected, shutters banging in the wind. The nobles who stayed behind have front-row seats to the burnings, whether they want them or not.

In The Witcher 3

Geralt’s first proper look at Novigrad happens right here. In Pyres of Novigrad he arrives just as Caleb Menge burns a sorceress and a doppler at the stake, and a gate on the south side of the square leads to the ransacked house of Triss Merigold.

The square is also one of the most useful spots in the city:

• Vivaldi Bank – Vimme Vivaldi changes orens and florens into Novigrad crowns, offers loans and plays Gwent with a Scoia’tael deck.
• Books and Scrolls – a two-storey bookshop on the north side, run by Marcus T.K. Hodgson, who also plays Gwent.
• Merchants and crafters – several traders, an herbalist and an armorer working from an alcove under a building on the western side. One merchant stocks plenty of mandrake and cherry cordial, handy for brewing White Gull.
• Notice board – the source of contracts such as the imp hunt and the monster in The Bits.
• Cleaver’s Headquarters – just west of the square, the base of Carlo “Cleaver” Varese and his Crownsplitters.

Other residents include Cleaver’s dwarven accountant Caesar Bilzen, the actress Irina Renarde of the Butcher’s Yard theater, and the late Margrave Henckel, whose house plays a part in Count Reuven’s Treasure.

Quests in Hierarch Square

• Contract: An Elusive Thief
• Following the Thread
• Contract: Doors Slamming Shut
• Gwent: Big City Players
• Count Reuven’s Treasure

Good to know

Hierarch Square has its own fast travel signpost, and the Fish Market lies just to the southwest, so it makes a natural base for shopping runs. High Stakes cannot begin until you have seen the opening pyre scene here.