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Piazza di Spagna |
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The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) climb a steep
slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated
by Trinità dei Monti, the church that was under the patronage of the Bourbon kings
of France, above. The Scalinata is "without a doubt the longest and widest staircase
in all Europe."
The monumental stairway of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s
bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy
to the Holy See, today still located in Palazzo Monaldeschi in the piazza below,
with the Trinità dei Monti above.
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| | Villa Borghese | |
| In 1605, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V and patron of Bernini,
began turning this former vineyard into the most extensive gardens built in Rome
since Antiquity. The vineyard's site is identified with the gardens of Lucullus,
the most famous in the late Roman republic. In the 19th century much of the garden's
former formality was remade as a landscape garden in the English taste (illustration,
right). The Villa Borghese gardens were long informally open but were bought by
the commune of Rome and given to the public in 1903. The large landscape park
in the English taste contains several villas. The Spanish Steps lead up to this
park, and there is another entrance at the Porte del Popolo by Piazza del Popolo.
The Pincio (the Pincian Hill of ancient Rome), in the south part of the park,
offers one of the greatest views over Rome.
Villa Borghese is a large landscape garden in the naturalistic English manner
in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums (see Galleria Borghese) and
attractions. It is the second largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 148
acres) after that of the Villa Doria Pamphili. The gardens were developed for
the Villa Borghese Pinciana ("Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill"), built by the
architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese, who used
it as a villa suburbana, a party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his
art collection. The gardens as they are now were remade in the early nineteenth
century.
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| | Piazza del Popolo e il Pincio | |
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The Piazza del Popolo is a square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally
means "piazza of the people", but historically it derives from the poplars (populus
in Latin, pioppo in Italian) after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo,
in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.
The Piazza lies inside the northern gate in the Aurelian Walls, once the Porta
Flaminia of ancient Rome, and now called Porta del Popolo. This was the starting
point of the Via Flaminia, the road to Ariminum (modern Rimini) and the most important
route to the north. At the same time, before the age of railroads, it was the
traveller's first view of Rome upon arrival. For centuries, the Piazza del Popolo
was a place for public executions, the last of which took place in 1826.
Looking from the north (illustration, right), three streets branch out from the
Piazza, forming the so-called "trident" (il Tridente): the Via del Corso in the
centre, the Via del Babuino on the left (opened in 1525 as the Via Paolina) and
the Via di Ripetta (opened by Leo X in 1518 as the Via Leonina) on the right.
Twin churches (the chiese gemelle) of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1681) and Santa
Maria in Montesanto (1679), begun by Carlo Rainaldi and completed by Bernini and
Carlo Fontana, define the junctions of the roads. Close scrutiny of the twin churches
reveals that they are not mere copies of one another, as they would have been
in a Neoclassical project, but vary in their details, offering variety within
their symmetrical balance in Baroque fashion.
To the south, the central Via del Corso follows the course extended beyond the
city gate as the ancient Roman Via Flaminia, coming from the Capitol and the forum.
The Via Flaminia became known as the Via Lata in the Middle Ages, before becoming
today's Via del Corso and leads to the Piazza Venezia. The Via di Ripetta leads
past the Mausoleum of Augustus to the Tiber, where the riverside landing called
the Porto di Ripetta was located until the late nineteenth century. The Via del
Babuino ("Baboon"), linking to Piazza di Spagna, takes its name from a grotesque
sculpture of Silenus that gained the popular name of "the Baboon".
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| | Il Vaticano | |
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BASILICA SAN PIETRO
The Basilica of Saint Peter officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San
Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as
St. Peter's Basilica, is located within the Vatican City. It occupies a "unique
position" as one of the holiest sites and as "the greatest of all churches of
Christendom". In Catholic tradition, it is the burial site of its namesake Saint
Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition,
was the first Bishop of Antioch, and later first Bishop of Rome and therefore
first in the line of the papal succession. While St. Peter's is the most famous
of Rome's many churches, it is not the first in rank, an honour held by the Pope's
cathedral church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
PIAZZA SAN PIETRO
The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate
forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope
give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from
a window in the Vatican Palace" (Norwich 1975 p 175). Bernini had been working
on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with
his renowned colonnades, using the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in
the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like façade by Carlo
Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space
and evoke emotions of awe.
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| | Ancient Rome | |
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VIA DEI FORI IMPERIALI
The Via dei Fori Imperiali is a road in the centre of the city of Rome that runs
in a straight line from the Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum, which is itself situated
in the Piazza Colosseo.
The road, whose original name was "Via Triumphale", was built during the reign
of Benito Mussolini. Its course takes it over parts of the Forum of Trajan, Forum
of Augustus and Forum of Nerva, parts of which can be seen on both sides of the
road. There has in recent years been a great deal of archeological excavation
on both sides of the road, and it is clear that significant Imperial Roman items
remain to be found under it.
Although this road, by its presence, prevents the unearthing of a significant
area of Imperial Rome, it must also be said that prior to its building vehicular
traffic was allowed to drive through part of the Roman Forum, with the potential
of causing incalculable and irremediable damage to the surviving buildings. Archeological
excavation continues to date on either side of this road.
THE COLOSSEUM
Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used
for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. As well as the gladiatorial games,
other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts,
executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology.
The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It
was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious
order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine.
Although in the 21st century it is in a ruined condition due to damage caused
by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is now an iconic symbol of Imperial
Rome. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions and still has close
connections with the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads
a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession to the amphitheatre
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| | The Trevi Fountain | |
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The fountain at the juncture of three roads (tre vie)[2] marks the terminal point[3]
of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts
that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin,
Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the
city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's facade). However, the
eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles).
This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more
than four hundred years.[4] The "coup de grace" for the urban life of late classical
Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans
were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was
also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct
that brought water to Rome was revived in the fifteenth century, with the Renaissance.
In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built
a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald
the water's arrival
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| | Piazza Navona | |
| This square follows the plan of an ancient Roman circus, the 1st century Stadium
of Domitian,where the Romans came to
watch the agones ("games"): It was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena).
It is believed that over time the name changed to 'in agone' to 'navone' and eventually
to 'navona'.
Defined as a public space in the last years of 15th century, when the city market
was transferred to it from the Campidoglio, the Piazza Navona is now the pride
of Baroque Roman art history. It features sculptural and architectural creations
by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, whose famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the
Four Rivers, 1651) stands in the center; by Francesco Borromini and Girolamo Rainaldi,
who designed the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone; and by Pietro da Cortona, who
painted the galleria in the Pamphilj palace
The market was again moved in 1869 to the Campo de' Fiori. The piazza long hosted
theatrical shows and horse races. From 1652 until 1866, when the festival was
suppressed, it was flooded on every August Saturday and Sunday for elaborate celebrations
of the Pamphilj family.
The Piazza Navona contains two additional fountains, sculpted by Giacomo della
Porta: the Fontana di Nettuno (1574), located at the northern area of the piazza;
and the Fontana del Moro (1576), located at the southern end. | |
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