PORTICO OF VIPSANIA

PORTICUS VIPSANIA

Via del Corso

It stood on the right side going north of the ancient Via Lata (now Via del Corso) immediately south of the arches of the Aqua Virgo, in the area where the Galleria Sciarra is today

It was designed by Agrippa, begun by his sister Vipsania Polla, after whom it was named and finished by Augustus (27 BC/14 AD)

Agrippa had a great map of the empire (orbis pictus) exhibited in the building

It was adjacent to the CATABULUM (in the area where now is the church of S. Marcello) headquarters of the organization of public transport

It was maybe the CENTRAL OFFICE OF THE CURSUS PUBLICUS or the Imperial Post, which was used to cover in emergency up to 250 km (155 miles) per day (the normal average was 40 km - 25 miles - per day) using the stations for the exchange horses placed along the Roman roads

It is estimated that the Roman road network covered, in its entirety, about 80,000 km (50,000 miles), equivalent to about twice the circumference of the Earth

SCIARRA GALLERY

GALLERIA SCIARRA

Via S. Marcello

1885/86 Giulio De Angelis (1850/1906) for prince Maffeo Sciarra

"Giulio De Angelis, the most restless, the most curious and the most brave of the Roman architects of the period of king Humbert I, was not involved in the common taste in architecture at the end of the nineteenth century, not belonging to the official neo-sixteenth century style popular in his time, of which Gaetano Koch was the leading light. De Angelis had a personality that defied any classification: the relationship between art and industry was the recurring feature of his production" (Antonio Venditti) 

Frescos "Allegories and scenes of feminine virtues" 1886/88 Giuseppe Cellini who used the encaustic technique and had Roman rich ladies as models

It is effectively a celebration of the bourgeois class

Latin phrases of Virgil and Horace including "Not unaware of trouble I have learned to succor the unfortunate" from the Aeneid. The acronym CCS stands for Carolina Colonna Sciarra mother of Prince Sciarra and represented maybe as Domina in the fresco

In the area of the Gallery used to be the ancient PORTICUS VIPSANIA