VICTOR EMMANUEL II SQUARE

PIAZZA VITTORIO EMANUELE II

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II

Residential buildings with porches 1881/86 Gaetano Koch (1849/1910) and Giulio Podesti (1857/1909)

It is the largest square in Rome 316 x 174 m (1037 x 571 feet)

Built on the site of the destroyed Villa Palombara

Group of sculptures in concrete “Glauco” 1900 by Mario Rutelli (1859/1943) first version of the Fountain of the Naiads in Piazza della Repubblica

In the center of the square there are the ruins of a huge fountain of the time of Alexander Severus (222/235) known as TROFEI DI MARIO (Mario's Trophies)

On the east side of the square were destroyed the remains of a circular mausoleum called CASA TONDA (Round House), maybe the Tomb of Maecenas, beside which the sources mention the Tomb of Horace

MONUMENT TO ANITA GARIBALDI

MONUMENTO AD ANITA GARIBALDI

Piazzale Anita Garibaldi

1932 Mario Rutelli (1859/1943)

In the base there is the tomb of Anita Garibaldi (1821/49) wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi

She was Brazilian and her real name was Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro. She died at age 28 while pregnant during the escape with her husband after the defeat of the Roman Republic in 1849

MONUMENT TO NICOLA SPEDALIERI

MONUMENTO A NICOLA SPEDALIERI

Piazza Sforza Cesarini

1898 Mario Rutelli (1859/1943)

The monument was placed in front of S. Andrea Della Valle only in 1903 and then moved here in 1957 to make room for the fountain by Carlo Maderno

Nicola Spedalieri (1740/95) was a priest, philosopher and writer, author of "About Human Rights" of 1791. He rejected the deistic and atheistic character of the French Revolution, but he defended the rights of man proclaimed by it and he reckoned those rights as fundamentally Christian, considering the popular sovereignty as the foundation of government power

FOUNTAIN OF THE NAIADS

FONTANA DELLE NAIADI

Piazza della Repubblica

Basin built in 1888

GROUPS WITH BRONZE NYMPHS AND SEA MONSTERS

Four nymphs sculpted in 1901:

"Nymph of the lake with swan"

"Nymph of the river with river monster"

"Nymph of the oceans with a horse"

"Nymph of groundwater with dragon" 

At the center

"Glaucus fighting a Merman" 1912 all works by the Sicilian Mario Rutelli (1859/1943)

In Greek mythology, the Naiads were the nymphs who lived in rivers and lakes, in fresh water. The nymphs who lived in the salt waters were known as Ocean Nymphs or Nereids, therefore the very attractive nymph of the fountain of the oceans is not really a Naiad

Apparently the face of Glaucus is the portrait of the Roman poet Trilussa, according to the testimony of the great grandson of the artist, the politician, former mayor of Rome, Francesco Rutelli

It is the ending fountain of the ACQUA PIA ANTICA MARCIA aqueduct restored by Luigi Canina (1795/1856) for Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78)

"While the Naiads present a model of firmness Art Nouveau style, the Glaucus shows clearly the suggestion exercised on the Palermitan sculptor by the work of Bernini" (Giorgio Muratore)

The first ending fountain of the Acqua Marcia was a meaningless round basin in the area where now is the Obelisk of Dogali: it was inaugurated on September 10, 1870, ten days before the breach of Porta Pia and this did lead to the popular saying: "Acqua Pia, oggi tua domani mia" (Acqua Pia, now yours tomorrow mine) in reference to the end of the temporal power of popes

The nudity of the Naiads created a big scandal, so much that a popular legend has it that Rutelli was forced to change his original plan for Glaucus in the middle: instead of a naked woman and a naked man embraced, now the naked man embraces a fish