SQUARE OF THE PEOPLE

PIAZZA DEL POPOLO

Piazza del Popolo

The name may come from the word populus (poplar) and it is said that there was a grove of poplars relevant to the TOMB OF THE DOMIZI FAMILY and therefore also of Nero who was part of that family

The tomb corresponded to the area where now stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo

Another version has it that the poplar was only one and located at the center of the square instead of the obelisk

The most likely explanation of the name comes from the fact, however, that Paschal II (1099/1118) built near the walls a chapel at the expense of the Roman people (the one over which was later built the present church of S. Maria del Popolo): of the people (popolo) was the Virgin Mary, of the people became the square

It was a small area of​trapezoidal shape, spreading out towards the Trident outlined at the beginning of the sixteenth century by Leo X Medici (1513/21) who had opened the Via Leonina, now Via Ripetta, using funds from a tax for prostitutes

The Trident was completed by Clement VII Medici (1523/34), cousin of Leo X, who in 1525 opened the Via Clementina, now Via del Babuino with earthworks of the Pincio Hill

In 1572 Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602) installed here the first public fountain in modern Rome for Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85)

The square was the main entrance to Rome for those coming from the north who would pass through the PORTA DEL POPOLO (Gate of the People) in the Aurelian Walls

During the Napoleonic occupation Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) definitively transformed the square and created his urban masterpiece

“He reread the Baroque tradition according to the criteria of social enlightenment and integration between architecture and nature, a solution that has harmoniously reconnected the pre-existing monuments, equipping the city with the first public park of modern times” (TCI)

In 1811/24 Valadier had his foreman Antonio Lovatti built:

At No. 6 the barracks of the papal gendarmes which later became CASERMA GIACOMO ACQUA mirroring the planimetric arrangement of the opposite S. Maria del Popolo

The two buildings on Via del Corso erected for the Torlonia family with the two coffee bars Rosati and Canova

CONVENT OF THE AUGUSTINIANS

Martin Luther lived for several months in 1511 in the original convent and it was here that his desire to reform the church was transformed into a definite resolution and will

In 1818 Valadier removed the old fountain by Giacomo Della Porta and in 1829, under Pope Leone XII Sermattei (1823/29), replaced it with a new central fountain with “Four faux Egyptian lions in marble” throwing water in the “Four tanks” arranged around the Flaminio Obelisk

FOUNTAINS IN THE SEMICIRCLES

“Neptune between two Mermen” toward the river and “Goddess Rome between the Tiber and Aniene Rivers” toward the Pincio Hill 1818/21 by Giovanni Ceccarini (about 1790/1861)

At the outer corners of the two exedras “Statues of Four Seasons” by Filippo Gnaccarini (1804/75), Francesco Massimiliano Laboureur (1767/1831), Achille Stocchi (?/after 1870) and Felice Baini (active 1824/37) the authors also of the four statues in the transept of the Basilica of St. Paul

Valadier also settled the area on ​the slopes of the Pincio Hill with wide ramps completed in 1834

In 1878/79 two side towers that served to fortify the gate were demolished and the two smaller side arches were added to the main arch. A new access road to the square was designed as well as gardens, streets and stairs, behind the exedra on the river, following the construction of the Bridge Regina Margherita (1886/91)

In 1936 was inaugurated the FOUNTAIN OF THE RENOVATED VIRGIN AQUEDUCT (Aqua Virgo) in the niche under the terrace of the Pincio Hill

Today the square is a pedestrian zone, used for public events, with a capacity of about 30,000 people

TORLONIA PALACE

PALAZZO TORLONIA

Via della Conciliazione 30

Begun about 1500 by Cardinal Adriano da Corneto Castellesi secretary of Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503) with a project maybe by Donato Bramante (1444/1514)

The works were completed in about 1520 maybe by Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)

It was donated unfinished in 1505 to the King of England, Henry VIII, who had commissioned the now disappeared external paintings to Polidoro Caldara aka Polidoro da Caravaggio

It was the seat of the English Embassy and was seized by the apostolic chamber after the Anglican schism

Between 1609 and 1635 it belonged to the Borghese family

In 1760 it was bought by the French bankers Giraud and was called PALAZZO GIRAUD

Since 1820 it belongs to the Torlonia family who restored it and built the rear wing. They are still the owners to this day

TORLONIA PALACE ON VIA DELLA LUNGARA

PALAZZO TORLONIA ALLA LUNGARA

Via dei Corsini 5

The 620 pieces of the TORLONIA COLLECTION founded in 1859 by Alessandro Torlonia were exhibited until the Fifties in seventy-seven rooms

It was sculptures, busts, sarcophagi and ancient reliefs collected by the family and, for the most part, bought from the most important private collections:

115 pieces from the Giustiniani collection and other pieces from the Savelli and Caetani collections as well as from the Cavaceppi studio

The collection was later enriched with the excavations in areas owned by the Torlonia family: Villa dei Quintili, the Circus of Maxentius on the Appian Way (the tomb of Romulus was transformed into a “country home” with the addition of a porch in the nineteenth century) Cerveteri, the Port of Trajan in Fiumicino and the area around Lake Fucino which was drained by Alessandro in the mid-nineteenth century (he later founded the Bank of Fucino of which the family is still a shareholder) and other locations

It is considered the most important private collection of ancient sculptures in the world and it constitutes for quantity and quality almost a third of all the ancient sculptures in Rome

Among the masterpieces shamefully hidden:

The famous “Hestia Giustiniani” perhaps a copy of the second century AD from a bronze original of about 470 BC

In the seventeenth century it was property of the Giustiniani family who kept it in their palace and from whom took its name

Hestia was the Greek goddess of hearth and home, even if this beautiful Roman statue was perhaps a Hera or Demeter, as a type of representation in the round of Hestia in Greek sculpture is not yet known

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717/78) considered it erroneously an example of the kind of classical Greek art described as “severe”

The statue is now in the Palazzo Torlonia on Via della Conciliazione

Other pieces:

Two copies of the “Eirene” from the original by Kefisodotos

An “Athlete” from the original by Myron of Eleutere (about 500/about 440 BC)

A “Diadoumenos” from the original by Polykleitos of Argos (about 490/about 425 BC)

A copy of a “Feminine Figure” from the group of Menelaus

An “Aphrodite Anadyomene”

A “Statue of woman sitting with a mastiff” among the most significant examples of such neo-attic representations

“Relief with Vesta during a sacrifice” found near the Port of Trajan in 1867

The “Relief of the Port of Rome”

A “Greek object offered as a vow to some Athenians deity” of the fifth century BC

Moreover:

“107 Imperial Busts” including “Colossal and veiled portrait of Plotina”, “Julia Domna”, “Portrait of a Man veiled known as Massenzio” from the Circus of Maxentius and some of the most remarkable examples of portraits dating back to the late empire

Until the Fifties the collection was accessible to those who would ask the Torlonia, but they would discretionarily limit the entrance only to the rich and nobles, so that it is said that Professor Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli had to pretend to work as a cleaner to see the collection

The end of this amazing private museum was chilling: in 1979 seventy-seven rooms were converted into 93 STUDIO APARTMENTS for rent. The whole operation was done in a completely illegal way as it was established by the Supreme Court!

The poor sculptures were either closed in boxes in the basement where they are still now or were transported elsewhere

For years a controversy has been going on between the City of Rome and the Torlonia family so that the 620 treasures could be finally exhibited

Palazzo Rivaldi, which is being renovated, has been proposed as a suitable place for a new museum

NUÑEZ TORLONIA PALACE

PALAZZO NUÑEZ TORLONIA

Via Condotti 20

1658/60 Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95) maybe from a design of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) for the Marquis Nuñez

In 1806 it became the property of the Bonaparte family and here lived Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, who had Raffaele Stern (1774/1820) to renovate the building

In 1842 it was bought by the Torlonia family who had Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) to restore and enlarge it

Marino Torlonia wanted to build the Hotel d'Inghilterra (Hotel England) in front of the building for his guests

It was again restored in 1989

HOTEL D'INGHILTERRA

HOTEL D'INGHILTERRA

Via Bocca di Leone 14

1842 Antonio Sarti (1797/1880) for the Torlonia family as a provisional residence, pending the restoration of their newly bought home nearby, in Via Condotti (Palazzo Nuñez Torlonia)

It was soon after used as a guest house to host guests of the Torlonia family, foreign artists and intellectuals

Later it became a regular hotel