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

CAPITOLINE HILL SQUARE

PIAZZA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO

Piazza del Campidoglio

Designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475/1564) and completed for the most part only after his death

“The new layout of the square was founded on three basic principles: alignment, symmetry and convergence, which combined to give the Capitoline new square a coherent unit both architectural and spatial. Michelangelo aimed to achieve a unified whole, extending the unprecedented solution of the giant order with Corinthian pilasters to the façades of all three buildings, characterized by a common horizontal emphasis, for the use of massive cornices and architraves structures” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

RAMP

Modified 1578 by Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602) and shortened in 1929 for the opening of the Via del Mare

Original “Egyptian Lions” in black basalt of Numidia from the Iseo Campensis transformed into fountains in 1588 on the 1582 “Bases” by Giacomo Della Porta

During special celebrations, such as those after the election of a pope, white and red wine flowed from the mouths of the lions

GARDEN AT THE SIDES OF THE RAMP

On the left “Monument to Cola di Rienzo” in 1887 with a statue that the Florentine Girolamo Masini (1840/85) had carved in the years 1869/71. It is placed on a base composed of fragments of sculptures and various epigraphs designed by architect Francesco Azzurri (1831/1901)

Cola di Rienzo was maybe killed here or, more likely, in front of the Senatorial Palace in 1354

To the right there are rocks that were part of the Republican Walls

BALUSTRADE

Modified 1585 by Giacomo Della Porta

“Dioscuri” of late imperial age from the area of Monte Cenci where there was a temple dedicated to them. They were moved here in 1585

So-called “Trophies of Marius (159/86 BC)” which actually dates back to the Domitian (81/96) period from the castle of the Aqua Iulia in Piazza Vittorio. They were moved here in 1590

“Statues of Constantine (306/337) and of his son Constans II (337/350)” from the Baths of Constantine. They were moved here in 1653

“Two milestones (1^st and 7^th miles) from the old Appian Way”

IN THE CENTER OF THE PIAZZA

Copy of the “Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius” from the Lateran (the original is in the Capitoline Museums) moved here in 1538 on “Pedestal” by Michelangelo Buonarroti who used marble taken from the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum

It was one of the few things made during the artist's lifetime together with the “Access door to the Council Chamber” and the “Two ramps staircase” 1547/54 of the Senatorial Palace, even if the project also included a pillared canopy that was never made

IN THE NICHE

“Fountain of Goddess Rome” 1588/89 by Matteo Bartolani da Città di Castello (about 1527/about 1598) with “Porphyry and marble statue of Minerva” of the Domitian period transformed into goddess Roma

Matteo Bartolani had won the competition for the job although he had previously failed as an architect with the Felice Aqueduct and the fallen Bridge St. Maria, today's “Broken Bridge”

AT THE SIDES OF THE NICHE

“Two statues representing the Tiber (originally Tigris) and the Nile Rivers” from the Baths of Constantine but originally in the corners of the pediment of the Temple of Serapis moved here in 1518. They are hollow inside in order to be lighter

PATTERN OF THE PAVEMENT

Designed in 1940 by Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960) who followed roughly Michelangelo's design according to a posthumous engraving of 1567

The square is represented on the Italian coinage of the 50 euro cents coin

On 20 April 1979, a high potential bomb exploded in Piazza del Campidoglio causing serious damage. The attack did not cause a massacre only for a chance

An hour before the outbreak of the bomb, in fact, a session of the municipal council had just finished, while the square, usually crowded with tourists, was empty due to a storm

The bomb, consisting of four pounds of TNT and placed under the portal of the Palace of Senators, at the time of the explosion tore the portal, the arch and the columns on the left, damaging also the base of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius and the statue itself

Those responsible for the attack were never identified with certainty

VILLA BORGHESE CAR PARK

PARCHEGGIO DI VILLA BORGHESE

Viale del Muro Torto

1966/72 Luigi Moretti (1907/73)

2,000 cars on two floors over 3.6 hectares (9 acres)

Shopping center and multiple exits on Viale del Muro Torto, Via Veneto and for the subway station of Piazza di Spagna

“The relationship between structure and form, that is, between 'real construction' and 'ideal structure', is variously declined by Moretti in his works, real lessons of tectonics in which between the two terms is produced an exact identification as in the structural combination flared pillars-lowered domes of the Villa Borghese car park” (Bruno Reichlin, Annalisa Viati Navone)

PANTHEON (third part)

4^th AEDICULA ON THE LEFT

Statue “S. Anastasio” 1717 by Francesco Moderati (about 1680/after 1724)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“Crucifix” of the fifteenth century

On the left painting “Pentecost” 1790 by the Roman Pietro Labruzzi (1738/1805) who was court painter to the king of Poland Stanislaw August

On the right “Monument to Cardinal Ercole Consalvi” 1824 Secretary of State of Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23) who had signed for the pope in the agreement with Napoleon in 1,801 and relief “Returning to Pius VII of the provinces of the Papal States” works by the Danish Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770/1844)

3^rd AEDICULA ON THE LEFT

Statue “Virgin Mary of the Rock” 1523/24 by Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto (1490/1541) for Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) who had asked Lorenzetto to sculpt the statue to be located above his own tomb

On the right “Plaque in memory of Maria Bibbiena”, nephew of the powerful Cardinal Bernard Bibbiena and “girlfriend” of Raphael. In fact, the artist's letters show that, despite the pressure of the cardinal, he was absolutely determined not to get married

Below is the inscription of the “Tomb of the immense Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)” who wished to be buried here in 1609 alongside Raphael, his great inspiration

On the left “Bust of Raphael” 1833 by Giuseppe De Fabris (1790/1860)

“To Raphael we return for the beautiful forms he lent to antiquity as we had dreamed them, and as long as the world of the Greeks and the Romans will be for us (...) not just a cultural thing, but an aspiration and a desire, until then, when we will read the Greek and Latin poets, we will picture their images as Raphaelite images, or derived from these, and we will see that world as Raphael saw it: a world in which the birds at dawn never cease their singing” (Bernard Berenson)

On the tomb of Raphael is engraved in Latin a couplet by Pietro Bembo, which translated into Italian reads: Here lies Raphael the one by whom, the great mother of all things, Nature, feared to be won and, once he died, she feared to die herself

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“Tomb of Umberto I” (king of Italy 1878/1900) 1900 by Giuseppe Sacconi (1854/1905), the same architect of the Victor Emmanuel Monument, with a slab of alabaster and reliefs at the sides with female allegorical figures “Goodness” by Eugenio Maccagnani (1852/1930) and “Bounty” by Arnaldo Zocchi (1851/1922)

“Tomb of Margherita of Savoy” 1926 wife and cousin of Umberto I

On the occasion of a visit of Queen Margherita of Savoy in Naples, the Neapolitan pizza makers invented PIZZA MARGHERITA with the colors of the Italian flag: mozzarella for white, tomato for red and basil for green

In front of the tombs “Altar of porphyry” with the royal insignia by Guido Cirilli (1871/1954) who executed Sacconi's project of the tombs

2^nd AEDICULA ON THE LEFT

Statue “St. Agnes” by Vincenzo Felici (active 1667/1702)

On the left “Funerary monument of Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536)” 1921 made from a cast of Giovanni Dupré (1817/1882)

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT – CHAPEL OF THE VIRTUOSI OF THE PANTHEON or CHAPEL OF S. JOSEPH OF THE HOLY LAND

Marble group “St. Joseph and the Child Jesus” 1550/60 by Vincenzo De Rossi (1525/87)

On the sides:

Oil paintings on the wall “Nativity” and “Adoration of the Magi” about 1660 by Francesco Cozza (1605/82)

On the side walls:

Stuccos “Rest from the Flight into Egypt” 1728 by Carlo Monaldi (about 1690/1760) and “Joseph's Dream” 1728 by Paolo Benaglia (?/1739)

Above:

“Sibyl of Cuma” 1674 by Ludovico Gimignani (1643/97)

“Moses” 1674 by Francesco Rosa (active since 1674/d. 1687)

“Eternal Father” 1674 by G.B. Peruzzini (1629/94)

“David” 1674 by Luigi Garzi (1638/1721)

“Sibyl from Eritrea” 1674 by Giovanni Andrea Carlone aka Genovese (1639/97)

Funerary epigraphs:

Tombstones of “virtuosi” Flaminio Vacca (1538/1605) 1605, Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66), Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47) buried here

Here are also buried the composer Arcangelo Corelli, and the architect Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/73)

“The Congregation of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon was established in 1543 by Pope Paul III (1534/49). It was an association of painters, sculptors and architects who were celebrating the feast of St. Joseph with an exhibition of works of art in the portico of the Pantheon, to which, in the seventeenth century, participated also Velásquez and Salvator Rosa. These exhibitions are historically significant because they constitute one of the first signs of a free market for works of art in Rome. Offices of the Congregation, with the historical archive and an interesting collection of works, is located in the Pantheon in some rooms within the porch” (Giovanni Belardi, Federico De Martino)

1^st AEDUCULA ON THE LEFT

Oil on canvas painting “Assumption of the Virgin Mary” 1638 by Andrea Camassei (1602/49)

PANTHEON (second part)

Porch

33 x 16 m (108 x 52 feet) with “Sixteen monolithic columns in Egyptian granite gray and pink” 13 m (43 feet) high

The Egyptian origin of these huge columns would immediately be recognized in antiquity by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, unlike now, accustomed as we are to so many different types of materials

Marble of this type does not exist in Italy or in Europe and the mere fact of having been able to bring the columns to Rome on barges all the way from Egyptian quarries that are even distant from the Nile, was a statement and a display of enormous power on the part of the Roman government

The columns are surmounted by a pediment on which there was a bronze relief representing an enormous crowned eagle, the eagle of the apotheosis of Romulus, the true symbol of Rome

The big inscription reads: Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius did this during his third consulship

The small inscription reads: Emperor Caesar Septimius Severus and Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus restored with great care the Pantheon ruined by ancientness

The porch (pronaos) was preceded by a staircase which has recently been found and buried again. The illusion of being in front of a classic Greek style temple was also due to the fact that the dome could not be seen from the large square surrounded by a portico in front of the Pantheon

Therefore Hadrian had obviously wanted to surprise those who would enter the building and find themselves surrounded by a spherical and modern interior

DOORS

The doors were restored at the time of Pius IV Medici (1559/65) but the structure is most likely the original, perhaps that of Augustus, kept as a sort of relic in the reconstruction of Hadrian

They are huge: 7.53 x 4.45 m (24.7 x 14.6 feet)

On the sides of the doors there are two niches where there were maybe statues of Augustus and Agrippa

BRICK WALLS

They have the incredible thickness of 6.2 m (20.4 feet) and are marked by niches and arches to lighten the structure

Dome

Internal diameter of 43.30 m (142.06 feet) of height from the floor to the top

The perfect proportions give the impression of walking into a huge ball

It was raised using a single extraordinary wooden hemisphere centering filled with a jet of conglomerate containing volcanic pumice to lighten it up

The Romans invented concrete the use of which disappeared after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was rediscovered only a thousand years later and it began to be used extensively, as the Romans did, only from the end of the eighteenth century onward

This dome is one of the most extraordinary examples in the world of the capacity of human ingenuity

The hole (oculus) has a diameter of about 9 m (29.52 feet) and is trimmed with bronze

It is still the dome with the largest diameter in Italy:

The dome of the Basilica of St. Peter, albeit higher, has a diameter of 42.52 m (139.50 feet), the dome of Florence Cathedral has a real diameter of 41.47 m (136.05 feet), although the major diagonal of the octagon is 44.97 m (147.53)

Outside Italy, the Capitol Dome in Washington has a diameter of 29.26 m (96 feet) and the Cathedral of St. Paul's in London has a diameter of 31 m (102.10 feet)

A greater dome without internal supports was only built in 1881 in England as part of the Devonshire Royal Hospital building: 44.20 m (145.01 feet)

Now the largest dome in the world is that of the Cowboys Stadium finished in 2009 and located in Arlington, Texas with a diameter of 275 m (902 feet)

The Pantheon is oriented with the façade to the north and it was built in such a way that, on every April 21^st, the birthday of Rome, at noon, the light rays passing through the hole in the dome would strike precisely on the big doors

“It is significant that the Pantheon is located exactly opposite the Mausoleum of Augustus, 500 steps (740 meters - 2,428 feet) away and maybe it used to be visually connected to the Mausoleum itself with a path that would open the view of the two obelisks at the sides. Now this correspondence, if it really existed, must have dated back to the Augustan system, because in the second century other buildings arose obstructing the view. So the world of cosmic references involved the whole system consisting of Pantheon, Mausoleum, Sundial and Ara Pacis: if we accept the identity of the site of the Pantheon and the Palus Caprae, the place of the apotheosis of Romulus, there is a clear correspondence between the apotheosis of the founder of Rome and that of Augustus” (Francesca de Caprariis and Fausto Zevi)

FOURTEEN MONOLITHIC FLUTED COLUMNS 8.9 m (29 feet) high in ancient yellow marble from Tunisia and pavonazzetto marble from Turkey

ATTIC ABOVE THE ENTABLATURE

Rebuilt in 1747 by Paolo Posi (1708/76) for Benedict XIV Lambertini (1740/58)

A restoration in 1930 has revived, over the last niche on the right, the original decoration with polychrome marble derived from Renaissance drawings

The FLOOR also made of polychrome marble, including porphyry from Egypt, is largely original

Aediculae and Chapels

1^st AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Altarpiece “Madonna of the Girdle and St Nicholas of Bari” 1686 by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

1^ST CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

At the center:

“Annunciation” maybe by Melozzo degli Ambrosi aka Melozzo da Forlì (1438/94)

On the sides:

On the right “Incredulity of St. Thomas” by Pietro Paolo Bonzi aka the Hunchback of Carracci (about 1576/1636)

On the left “Ss. Lorenzo and Agnes” by Clemente Maioli (1634/73) from Ferrara, a painter influenced by Pietro da Cortona and close to the style of Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

On the sides there are also “Four marble busts of prelates” and “Two angels in marble” 1696 of Bernini school

2^nd AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Fragmentary fresco “Coronation of the Virgin Mary” of the fourteenth century

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

“Tomb of Victor Emmanuel II” 1878 by Manfredo Manfredi (1859/1627) sculpted by Adolfo Laurenti (1856/1944)

“The execution of the work (...) did not correspond precisely to the design of Manfredi, who had planned the placement of an altar of porphyry, never made, and a richer decoration of the frame of the large bronze plaque. The project, which effectively makes use of the most essential elements of the classical language, is well weighted according to the monumentality and the prestige of the architectural context” (Raffaella Catini - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

The golden lamp hanging in front of the tomb is a symbolic reminder of Victor Emmanuel III who died in exile in Alexandria, Egypt in 1947

3^rd AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Statue “St. Anne and the Virgin Mary” 1715/16 by Lorenzo Ottoni (1648/1736)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

Fresco “Madonna and Sts. Francis and John the Baptist” XV sec. by an artist from Umbria or Lazio regions. It is known as Our Lady of Mercy or of the Gate because it was located until 1837 in a niche of the pronaos protected by a gate

On the right canvas “Consecration of the Pantheon” 1750

4^th AEDICULA ON THE RIGHT

Statue “S. Rasio martyr” in 1725 by Bernardino Cametti (1669/1736)

MAIN ALTAR

Rearranged at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729)

Copy of the Roman-Byzantine “Madonna and Child” of the seventh century coated in silver that had been placed on the altar during the consecration of the Pantheon to the Virgin Mary in the year 609. It replaced the original in the early twentieth century

During the refurbishment of Alessandro Specchi the relics of the saints Rasio and Anastasio were found and were put in a medieval bronze box which is shown to the faithful during the most important celebrations

Clement XI Albani (1700/21), who had wanted to carry out the work, commissioned then the statues of the two saints located in the aediculae to the right and to the left of the altar

He also commissioned the MOSAIC MADE OUT OF GOLD AND LAPIS LAZULI, which replaced a sixteenth century fresco by Giovanni Guerra

“Wooden Choir” 1840 by Luigi Poletti (1792/1869)

PANTHEON (first part)

PANTHEON

Piazza della Rotonda

The original Pantheon, rectangular, smaller and corresponding to the site of the porch was built in the years 27/25 BC at the behest of MARCUS VIPSANIUS AGRIPPA, Augustus' son-in-law

It was restored after the fire of the year 80 AD by Domitian (81/96) and again by Trajan (98/117)

According to ancient Roman tradition it was the Palus Caprae, the place where the apotheosis of Romulus happened, that is, his ascent to heaven carried by an eagle

The name comes from the Greek and it means all the gods, indicating the kind of worship that used to be carried out here

It was completely rebuilt in the years 118/125 by Hadrian (117/138), who perhaps was directly involved in the architectural design and revisited the original inscription confusing the dating for archeologists until the excavations in 1892

On that year the French architect Georges Chedanne found out that all the bricks, including the ones in the basement, have marks pinpointing the dating between 120 and 125 AD

The works were completed in the period of Antoninus Pius (138/161)

In 202 Septimius Severus (193/211) and his son Caracalla carried out restorations mentioned in the small relief of the pediment under the main one

Many scholars since the fifteenth century consider the Pantheon as the starting point and the most important work of all western architecture

“Notwithstanding the interpretation of the building as a sort of covered Forum where Adriano was holding court, the sacredness of the Pantheon seems unquestionable if the great oculus at the top of the vault has the function, typical of a templum, to maintain the relationship between heaven and earth. The interpretation of the building as a kind of microcosm on earth, in whose conception the Chaldean astrologer Dionysius of Miletus would have had part alongside Hadrian, has as its corollary the repeated and even authoritative modern attempts to interpret individual elements of the structure in an astral way: 7 exedras = 7 planets, 28 pilasters = 28 days of the lunar phases; 5 rows in the coffered vault = 5 planets except the sun and moon and so on” (Francesca de Caprariis and Fausto Zevi)

'The Pantheon is primarily a dynastic shrine with a cosmic vocation. Dio Cassius says that Adrian loved to administrate justice in it, so that it also had the palatial function of a Royal Hall. It is the largest covered space without intermediate supports that have been implemented before the invention of reinforced concrete” (Andrea Carandini)

Among the STATUES OF GODS there was the famous “Diana of Nemi” with a crown adorned with twenty-topaz, eighty other precious stones, a tiara, nine earrings, eight necklaces, and bracelets with beryl and other gems of which there is a written catalog

The statues in here would have been of course painted with bright colors, just like most of the statues in antiquity originally were

The Pantheon after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

In 608 it was given by the Emperor Phocas to Pope Boniface IV (608/615) and in 609 it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs as S. Maria ad Martyres (St. Mary near the Martyrs)

It is said that on this occasion Pope Boniface IV brought from the catacombs twenty-eight wagons full of bones of martyrs that were buried in the altar area

The emperor of the Byzantium, Constantius II (641/668), in 663 stripped it of the gilded bronze covering of the roof which was redone in lead at the behest of Gregory III (731/741) in 735

It ended up becoming a palace with additional buildings around it and it was even used as a papal residence by Anastasius IV (1153/54)

In 1625 Pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) took the bronze coating the beams of the porch (about 200 long tons - about 220 short tons) to make 80 cannons for Castel Sant'Angelo and the columns of the canopy of S. Peter's Basilica

He also had the column on the left corner replaced and had Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) build in 1626/27 two bell-towers known as “donkey ears” who were destroyed in 1882

The removal of the bronze by Urban VIII resulted in the famous lampoon written on the “talking statue” Pasquino: “In Rome, what the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did”

Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67) replaced other two columns on the left side and had the level of the square lowered. It is the lowest point of Rome, 13.40 m (44 feet) above sea level

Clement IX Rospigliosi (1667/69) in 1668 surrounded the porch with a fence to keep out the market that took place on the square

Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23) began restorations and Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) continued the job renewing part of the interior floor

In 1870 it became the sanctuary of the kings of Italy

In the years 1881/83 it was restored by removing the fence, isolating the sides, digging around it and demolishing the two bell-towers

In 1906 the square was paved with wood from Argentina trees donated by the Italian emigrants “to surround with religious silence the venerated tombs of the first kings of Italy” Naturally, the wooden floor did not last long

The Pantheon was for centuries the scene of actual staged events in the days of religious celebration of the Assumption of Mary and the Ascension of Christ: statues of Mary and Christ were raised to the sky through the large hole in the dome, creating an evocative dramatic effect

During the celebration of Pentecost, an impressive ceremony is still celebrated nowadays during which rose petals are thrown inside through the hole of the dome with the symbolic meaning of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the faithful

At the beginning of the seventeenth century a butcher shop run by a couple used to sell very successfully sausages of incredible and peculiar quality in Piazza della Rotonda

Investigators of Urban VIII discovered that the incredible and peculiar quality was due to the fact that the sausages were made of human flesh: the couple used to draw the victims in the basement of their shop and there they would kill them and turn into sausages. They were sentenced to death and executed in 1638

WEDEKIND PALACE

PALAZZO WEDEKIND

Piazza Colonna 366

1838 Pietro Camporese the Younger (1792/1873) as the Post Office building for Gregory XVI Cappellari (1831/46)

Camporese built it after having demolished a building of 1659 belonging to the Ludovisi family, in turn, built on medieval houses

It was renovated in 1879 by G.B. Giovenale (1849/1934) when it was purchased by the banker Wedekind

It is now the HEADQUARTERS OF THE NEWSPAPER IL TEMPO

This was the approximate area where once stood the TEMPLE OF MARCUS AURELIUS of which no trace remains

Twelve pillars in the PORTICO of which “Eleven ancient columns” in Carrara marble, found in 1817 in the ruins of the city of Veii

The four columns on each side of the main entrance are also ancient and were originally on the sides of the door of the Basilica of St. Paul destroyed by fire in 1823

“In 1880, under the portico was opened the Sommariva Cafè, called 'alle colonne' (at the columns), a meeting place for Romans night owls. The so called Kellerine used to serve here, in imitation of the Viennese Beer Houses, waitresses in Bavarian costume which were a first for Rome. The one of them who was the most successful was a French girl named Hannah. Curious people that did not want to spend for drinks were content to crowd in front of the entrance for the busty girls dressed in black, with cuffs and white apron, moving between the tables smiling, collecting substantial tips” (Cinzia Dal Maso - specchioromano.it)

VISCARDI CELSI PALACE

PALAZZO VISCARDI CELSI

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 18

End of 1500 for the Celsi family

FAÇADE renewed in 1678 by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95)

When the Celsi family finished in the early 1700s, it passed to the Viscardi family who changed the entire façade

Today it belongs to the Mercantili Bernetti family

RECTANGULAR COURTYARD

Ancient sculptures and a fountain composed of a “Strigillated sarcophagus with lion heads” that serves as a tank in which water flows from the mouth of a mask

ROOM WITH ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Beautifully painted by Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691/1765)

“His importance consisted in the timely reception of the necessity, even in his specific genre, to break away from the drama and rhetoric of his predecessors of the seventeenth century, by means of a language that would be more agile and brilliant, implemented with a painting drive loose and mushy. The technical implementation is coupled, however, with taste of a man of theater, who knows how to make come alive his whims with the basic animation of human presence and of subsidiary details, informing the viewer of the memory or of the suggestions of a very much alive rapport, lived in direct contact with his views in the eternal city. His views, in fact, with their subtle balance between reality and fantasy, are always on a human scale, not taking the ever looming and impending timeless grandeur of Piranesi” (Giancarlo Sestieri)

VIDONI PALACE

PALAZZO VIDONI

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 116

Built in1515 as Palazzo Caffarelli for Bernardino Caffarelli

Giorgio Vasari attributed to Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto (1490/1541) who is said to have followed the advice of Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)

Expanded in 1550 and in 1770 by Nicola Giansimoni (active from 1766/d. 1800) for the Stoppani family

At the end of the eighteenth century it was bought by Cardinal Pietro Vidoni. Later it belonged to the Giustiniani Bandini family

The original FAÇADE is on Via del Sudario

It was raised with an EXTRA FLOOR and given a NEW FAÇADE ON CORSO VITTORIO EMANUELE II in the years 1886/87 by Francesco Settimj (active 1876/88), who opened a new main entrance in what was once the back of the building

Here took place the historic meeting between Pope Paul III (1534/49) and the German Emperor Charles V key to future relations between empire and papacy

It was the German Embassy and the administrative headquarters of the National Fascist Party. At that time it was renamed PALAZZO DEL LITTORIO

At the end of the Second World War it was the headquarters of the French Army

Now it houses the Ministry for Reforms and Innovation in Public Administration

In the foundations of the palace the “talking” statue Abate Luigi was found. It originally decorated the Curia of Pompey over which the palace was built

ROOM CHARLES V

In the frieze paintings “Stories of Charles V” by the school of Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

ROOM OF MIRRORS

Also called the Lady's Cabinet, the lady being the Duchess Giustiniani Bandini. A delightful delirium of Rococo style

Ceiling “Cupid with Doves” by Prospero Piatti (1842/1902)

ROOM OF AUDIENCES

Ceiling “Allegory of painting, sculpture and architecture” maybe by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728/79), more likely by Tommaso Maria Conca (1734/1822) who was a pupil of his uncle, the great Sebastiano Conca

VEROSPI PALACE

PALAZZO VEROSPI

Via del Corso 374

In 1565 the Verospi family bought a house and later the building was expanded and renovated by Girolamo Rainaldi (1570/1655)

Completed in about 1610 by Onorio Longhi (1568/1619) who made courtyard, loggia and gallery

Restored at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729)

At the end of 1800s it was raised of one floor

On the front there is a plaque commemorating the stay of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792/1822)

The palace belonged in the nineteenth century to the Torlonia family and since 1902 it belongs to the Italian bank CREDITO ITALIANO (now Unicredit)

LOGGIA

Frescos “Apollo and the Gods of Mount Olympus” 1607/08 spectacular masterpiece by Francesco Albani (1578/1660) for Cardinal Fabrizio Verospi

“The feverish knowledge of the almost mythical, to him, Raphael is transformed, because of the obvious imitation of compositional scheme, in the decoration of the gallery of Palazzo Verospi. Francesco Albani there follows the partition wall and the same scenes from the Loggia of Raphael in the Farnesina Villa. But the center rectangle of the vault (between Hesperus and Lucifer, Apollo goes from Spring and Summer to Autumn and Winter to signify the Allegory of Time) is a newer and yet nostalgic temptation to be returned to the ancient flavor of a Hellenistic cameo. Precious memories of culture and classical ardor, steeped in the absolute modernity of a new landscape” (Antonio Boschetto - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)