Comune di RomaTourism

via dei coronari

via giulia

via condotti

via sistina

via del babuino

via del portico d’ottavia

via dei giubbonari

via di campo marzio

via dei cestari

via dei falegnami/via dei delfini

via di monserrato

via del governo vecchio

via margutta

ThestreetsofRomeWalking through the streets of the capital

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Was the first thoroughfare to be openedin the medieval city by Pope Sixtus IV

as part of preparations for the Great Jubi-lee of 1475, built in order to ensure therewas a direct link between the “Ponte” dis-trict and the Vatican. The building of theroad fell in with Sixtus’ broader plans totransform the city so as to improve thestreets linking the centre concentrated onthe Tiber’s left bank, meaning the old CampMarzio (Campus Martius), with the northernregions which had risen up on the other bank,starting with St. Peter’s Basilica, the ideabeing to channel the massive flow of pilgrimstowards Ponte Sant’Angelo, the only ap-proach to the Vatican at that time. Via dei Cornari, which follows the finalstretch of the old via Recta, was one of thethree roads branching from the old Piazza diPonte, or Trivium Mensarioru, market placeand site for public executions, and reachedas far as the very central Piazza Colonna,passing right through the whole of the so-called Renaissance district: the area urban-istically and architecturally reshaped at theend of the fifteenth century, whose medievallook was supplanted by splendid Renaissancefeatures. Via dei Coronari soon took on therole of the nerve centre inside the revampedfabric of the district’s roads, a main road in-side the very heart of the city, symbolicallylocated halfway between the “holy city” andthe “historical centre”. The road was close-ly connected to the brand new Bank district,where the best-respected foreign banks wereto be found, so that as well as working as apure thoroughfare it was also a genuinelycraft and commercial area, a purpose it stillserves today thanks to the numerous antiqueshops dotted along the road. Via dei Coro-nari, nestling in the attractive area en-veloping the equally famous Piazza Navona,owes its own name to the continual flow ofpilgrims passing through it, particularly heavyin the Holy Years, during which many ven-dors of crowns and other religious items, al-so known as “paternostrari”, set up shop.

VIA DEI CORONARIThe road, whose fifteenth century charac-teristics have more or less been preserved,passed through two areas adjoining the neigh-bourhood: the “Scortecchiara”, where thetanners’ premises were to be found, and theImago pontis, so called as it included a well-known sacred building. The area’s layout,completed between the fifteenth and six-teenth centuries, and its by now well-es-tablished link to the city centre as home forsome of its more prominent residents, manyof whose buildings with their painted and es-pecially designed facades look onto the road.The path snaking between the charming andshady buildings of via dei Coronari, whereeven the less significant buildings and tinydetails of city fittings are an important lega-cy of the road’s social and architectural his-tory, takes us through a true open-air muse-um, decorated with renowned religious shopsand a high concentration of typical holy Ro-man alcoves. The latter are a further colour-ful reminder of the never-ending flux of pil-grims who would stop to say a quick prayerin front of these famous “Madonnelle” (stat-uettes of the Madonna).

Palazzo Grossi-Gondi, located at the be-ginning of via dei Coronari at the piazza TorSanguigna end. Built in the eighteenth cen-tury on the orders of the Fiorentine FamilyGondi, who are still its owners today, it dis-plays windows on its façades with decora-tions inspired by the family stem. Casa Luc-ci-Mancini, built in the sixteenth century bythe noble Roman family of the same name,was afterwards passed onto the Archconfra-ternity of Santa Maria in Portico which hadrefined stucco work added to the inner court-yard. Casa della Confraternita di Santa Mariadell’Orto, built in the seventeenth centuryon the orders of the rich Trastevere societywhich owned a great deal of property in thecity. Casa del Salvatore, is easily spottedthanks to a bust of “The Saviour” embeddedin its façade which was donated at the endof the fifteenth century to the “Compagnia

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dei Raccomandati del Signore”. PalazzettoBonaventura, built at the end of the fif-teenth century for the powerful family ofthe same name whose members included car-dinals and senators, is distinguished by a har-monious façade in fire-brick, inter-dispersedwith Corinthian capital pilasters, and fea-tures a refined inner courtyard that was re-furbished in the seventeenth century. It wastaken over in the eighteenth century first bythe Latini and then by the Diamanti-Valen-tini family. Casa dipinta, postioned on thecorner with via della Maschera d’Oro. It is afine example of that technique that gainedpopularity at the end of the fifteenth cen-tury of decorating house and palazzo facadeswith chiaroscuro effects, adding to the city’sgrandeur. The decoration (today rather fad-ed), attribute to artists of the like of Ma-turino da Firenze and Polidoro da Caravag-gio, whose special skills were very much indemand in Rome, is made up of a carefullycomposed series of paintings inter-dispersedby a number of trophies and mythologicalfigures. Palazzo Lancellotti is located on theblock between Piazza di San Simeone and Pi-azza di San Salvatore in Lauro. The huge con-struction, incorporating part of the pre-ex-

isting building, stands out as one of the moreimportant in via dei Coronari. It was put upat the end of the sixteenth century byFrancesco da Volterra for Cardinal ScipioneLancellotti, keeping faith to a grand projectlater completed by Carlo Maderno. The aus-tere and fine structure opens out, throughits central sumptuous archway designed byDomenichino, onto the splendid inner court-yard, the Palazzo’s true strong point: em-broidered on one side by a two-rowed colon-nade, its walls are embellished by a seriesof antique stucco-framed reliefs. The samemagnificence and refinement decorate therooms inside, whose vaults were frescoed byartists such as Guercino and Agostino Tassi.Palazzetto dell’ex Monte di Pietà (of theFormer Pawnshop) used for this very purposeby Pope Sixtus V at the end of the sixteenthcentury, was totally restored to its formerglory from scratch in 1572, as is recorded bythe plaque on the front wall. Palazzo delDrago, was commissioned to be built in 1557by the Drago brothers, Paolo, Giorgio and Gi-ampietro on an already-existing group ofhouses, so as to incorporate the medievalChurch of San Salvatore de Inversis. It standsout for its beautiful facade punctuated alongthe second row by arched windows andcrowned by an artistic cornice. Palazzo Fio-ravanti, built in the sixteenth century, firstbelonged to the Sala Family and then to thearistocratic Fioravanti Family from Pistoia.Casa dell’Arciconfraternita del Gonfalone,better known as Fiammetta’s house, is oneof the rare examples of an early fifteenthcentury home still bearing today a numberof medieval architectural features. Its famederives from the name of Cesare Borgia’swell-known mistress. Casa di ProsperoMochi, put up in 1516 by Pietro Rosselli forthe General Commissioner for Rome’s Forti-fications, is one of the road’s most charm-ing buildings. Casa Lezzani, or Raphael’sHouse, is a sober Renaissance building, wheretradition has it that the famous artist oncelived. Palazzo Vecchiarelli, built in the sec-ond half of the sixteenth century, is sur-mounted by a covered roof-terrace attrib-

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uted to Bartolomeo Ammannati.A beautiful view of Santa Maria della Pace’sdome may be enjoyed from behind the build-ings in vicolo della Volpe. Attaching thechurch, work on which stretched from endof the twelfth to the end of the seventeenthcenturies, is the famous cloister which wasbuilt by Bramante between 1500 and 1504and is part of the convent of the LateranCanon Regulars. This in turn was itself in-corporated in a construction running alongvia dei Coronari. San Salvatore in Lauro,looking onto the piazza of the same name,adjoins Palazzo Lancelotti. The first recordof the church dates back to 1177, work onit continuing in various stages right throughto the late sixteenth century. It was de-stroyed by a fire in 1591, to be rebuiltstraight afterwards on Ottavio Mascherino’sdesign. Its harmonious façade is the resultof the nineteenth century talents of Camil-lo Guglielmetti. Santi Simeone e Giuda isfound at the top of a spectacular flight ofsteps located in vicolo di San Simeone; thissmall temple, after having been put to anumber of different uses, is today deconse-crated. Known since the twelfth century asSanta Maria de Monticellis, or in Monticel-lo, and later as de Monte Jhoannis Ronzo-nis, the church belonged to the Orsini Fam-ily who lived in the neighbouring buildingsin Monte Giordano. Santi Celso e Giuliano,running along the via del Banco di Santo Spir-ito, winds up our religious visit through viadei Coronari taking us to the old Piazza diPonte. The church, the first record of whichdates back to 1008, was demolished in 1509;it was rebuilt at the middle of the very samecentury to be once again destroyed and putup again in 1735 on design of Carlo De Do-minicis.

L’Assunta (Assumption), the work of an un-known eighteenth century artist, makes amajestic appearance looking out from Palaz-zo Grossi-Gondi’s wall onto Tor Sanguigna.It is set in a pompous stucco frame, shapedso as to depict rejoicing angels among softclouds, surmounted by a canopy festooned

in the form of a temple. L’Immacolata Con-cezione (The Immaculate Conception), looksout from the side of Palazzo Lancellotti on-to via degli Amatriciani. The seventeenthcentury fresco is set in a sober frame com-posed of both stucco and travertine stone.La Madonna Addolorata (Our Lady of Sor-rows), positioned on the ashlar-worked cor-ner of Palazzo Lancellotti, overlooks the pi-azza in front of the building, surrounded bya stucco frame of rays. The original eigh-teenth century canvas us today kept insidethe building. Il Redentore (The Redeemer),is to be found on the corner of Palazzo Lan-cellotti, looking towards via dei Coronari.Its eighteenth century frame is similar tothe previously-mentioned aedicule, that isa number of rays mingled with angel headssurmounted by an angel in flight, positionedover an eighteenth century lamp. All ofwhich acts as a frame for the copy of a paint-ing by Raffaello Mengs. Madonna col Bam-bino (Madonna with Child), set in a nine-teenth century wooden frame, overlooks viadei Coronari from the façade of Palazzo Lan-cellotti. The original eighteenth century im-age has been replaced by a modern paint-ing on paper. Madonna della Pietà, em-bellishes the facade of Fiammetta’s house.The eighteenth century image is positionedabove a plaque recalling the Archconfra-ternity of the Gonfalone. Madonna dellaPietà, the beautiful oval image, made at theend of the nineteenth century, stands outon the façade of the building which oncehoused the Pawn Shop. Imago pontis (Imageof the Bridge), is the most famous of the sa-cred images decorating the neighbourhood.It is embedded in the ashlar-worked cornerbetween vicolo Domizio and via dei Coro-nari: it lends its name to this part of thestreet and the district itself. It is a taber-nacle reassembled in 1523 by Antonio daSangallo The Younger around the fresco de-picting the Incoronation of the Virgin Mary,a work by Perin del Vaga, according to a de-sign for an aedicola later used once againby Sangallo himself for the windows of theFarnese Palace.

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This is the long, straight thoroughfare pro-moted by Pope Julius II Della Rovere in

1508, to connect the church of San Giovan-ni dei Fiorentini with Ponte Sisto and thus,by means of the bridge, the city centre withTrastevere and the Vatican, creating an al-ternative route to the Via della Lungara (ope-ned by Julius II with the name of Via Setti-miana). The first part of the Via Giulia (na-med after the pope who commissioned it) isin the district (“rione”) of Ponte, while theother part, i.e. that near to Ponte Sisto, is inthe district of Regola. The rebuilding of thebridge, decided by Pope Sixtus IV on the oc-casion of the 1475 Jubilee (Holy Year), bearswitness to the extremely lively cultural mo-ment that the city was going through at theturn of that century. In the urban fabric thatdeveloped in the left-hand loop of the Tiber(in the Campo Marzio sector) the main roadslinking the major administrative and religiouscentres were created or rebuilt, and amongthese the Via Giulia played a foremost roleas the pivot of the urban reorganization de-sired by Julius II: the bridge (built on the re-mains of an older Roman bridge) and the newstreet guaranteed a highly important twofoldlink between the Vatican and the centre ofthe city, important meeting places teeming

with life. The Via Giulia was also the directconnection with the “Banking District” thatdeveloped around the church of San Giovan-ni dei Fiorentini after the return of the po-pes from Avignon and their instatement inthe Vatican. The most prestigious foreignbanks, especially those of Florence, wereestablished in the ancient “Canale di Ponte”(corresponding today to the Via del Banco diSanto Spirito), thus giving rise to an area ani-mated by upper middle class houses and re-sidences of the nobility, concentrated espe-cially around the church of the Florentine co-lony. It was precisely thanks to his associa-tion with a wealthy Tuscan banker, AgostinoChigi, that Pope Julius II was able to start hisambitious urban planning project, intendedto create a system connecting St. Peter’s, theBanks and the other side of the river. The po-pe wanted to enhance even more the role ofthe Via Giulia as an urban fulcrum by choo-sing it as the site for the majestic building tohouse the Curia Tribunal. Bramante was com-missioned to carry out the work, which re-mained unfinished, in 1508, according to anearly design which foresaw a monumentalbuilding extending from Vicolo del Cefalo toVia del Gonfalone, overlooking an equally re-presentative piazza intended by Julius II toassume the symbolic function of a new Ca-pitol. In the Via Giulia, which to this day isone of the capital‚s most elegant streets, themembers of important aristocratic familieshad their magnificent residences built, ac-cording to a trend that continued to developin the ensuing centuries, thanks to papal ini-tiatives: during the pontificate of Leo X workwas started on the eminent Florentine church,and a few years later Pope Paul III openedthe Via Paola, thereby creating the final linkwith the square in Ponte.

The first important building right at the be-ginning of the Via Giulia and connected withit by the small Piazza dell’Oro, is the Churchof the Florentines resident in Rome, enti-tled to St. John the Baptist, the patron saint

VIA GIULIA

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of Florence. Existing since the 11th centuryas the church of St. Pantaleon, at the end ofthe 15th century it was bestowed on theCompagnia della Pietà, which in 1508 ob-tained from Julius II permission to build anew place of worship. Eleven years later Ja-copo Sansovino won the competition held toassign the works, but was replaced immedi-ately afterwards by Antonio da Sangallo theYounger. After a first interruption, the twoarchitects resumed the work jointly, only tostop once more due to the sacking of Romein 1527. In the middle of the century the Flo-rentines commissioned the resumption of theproject - never however carried through toan artist of the calibre of Michelangelo. Itwas not until the end of the 16th centurythat construction was continued under Gia-como Della Porta, who finished the nave andthe aisles designed by Sangallo. In the ear-ly part of the following century Carlo Mader-no took over as architect and designed thetransept, the barrel vault and the long, nar-row dome, which people referred to as the“sucked sugar-almond”. The travertinefaçade was constructed in 1734 by Alessan-dro Galilei (responsible also for the impos-ing façade of the patriarchal basilica of SanGiovanni in Laterano). Internally, it com-prises a veritable anthology of Roman art,the outstanding names being those of Berni-ni, Algardi and Borromini (the last one wasburied here together with Maderno, as indi-cated by a plaque on the third column to theleft). We then start along the Via Giulia prop-er, in which every building and every churchwould really deserve attention. Going pastsome groups of 15th-century houses, at no.82 (at the corner with the Via dei Cimatori),we see one of the most interesting examplesof the Renaissance buildings along the road,characterized by arched windows of traver-tine and by traces of the old pictorial deco-ration of the façade. No. 79 is the MediciClarelli palace, also known as the “Conso-lato” of Florence, erected by Antonio da San-gallo the Younger in the first half of theCinquecento (purchased by the City of Rome,the 1st Municipality is today housed here):

this is one of the most interesting buildingsconstructed by the Tuscan community. Againin this case the façade was richly decorat-ed, yet another example of the fashion wide-spread in Rome at the end of the 15th cen-tury (of which there are numerous testi-monies along the Via Giulia and in the sur-rounding area), of adding prestige to the pa-trician buildings with paintings and graffition the outside walls. One of the most im-portant buildings in the street is the Palaz-zo Sacchetti, at no. 66, this too begun bySangallo as his own residence and sold by hisson Orazio to Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Mon-tepulciano who had extensions carried outby Nanni di Baccio Bigio, who conferred onthe building its majestic present form, andby Salviati who executed the frescoes in thesalon, praised by the critics of the period.The Ceuli family, who purchased it in the17th century, then added the splendid log-gia giving onto the Tiber. Farther down thestreet is the church of San Biagio della Pag-notta, and alongside it the Hotel Cardinal,at no. 64, a converted monastery that hadbeen built on the remains of the Curia Tri-bunals. The little church dating from medi-aeval times, called “della pagnotta” in re-lation to the custom of distributing “pag-notte” (small loaves) on the feast day of St.Blaise, was rebuilt in its present form in 1730.It was then thoroughly reorganized in 1832,when the Venerable Hospice of the Armeni-ans commissioned the architect FilippoNavone to convert the adjacent building in-to a convent based on the imposing ashlarruins of the Tribunal (the unfinished struc-ture was later bought by the Company of theBrescians). Today only the gigantic rough ash-lar blocks that formed the powerful base re-main of the grandiose complex, and are vis-ible from the corner between the Via Giuliaand the Via del Gonfalone, and big enoughto sit on, so that they were also known lo-cally as the “sofas of Via Giulia”. In 1870 thecomplex was purchased by the New UnitaryState and earmarked for civil uses, whereaswhen the 1975 Holy Year was coming up, theArmenian Hospice of San Biagio was trans-

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formed into the hotel given the name of “Car-dinal”. After passing the seventeenth-cen-tury Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio,the work of Carlo Rainaldi (it was originallythe site of the Archconfraternity of thatname, which carried out charitable work ofintercession for the souls of the dead). Turn-ing into the Via del Gonfalone towards theLungotevere (Tiber embankment), at no. 29is the Oratorio del Gonfalone, linked to theConfraternity of that name (dedicated toaiding the sick and the needy). Built in themid-sixteenth century over the ancientchurch of Santa Lucia in Xenodochio, the lit-tle building still contains a cycle of paintingsascribable to various artists, and represent-ing a nodal point of Mannerism in Rome. Ashort way beyond are the Carceri Nuove(New Prisons) at no. 52, commissionedhalfway through the Seventeenth century byPope Innocent X to Antonio Del Grande, toreplace the prisons of Tor di Nona and of theCorte Savella, flanked by the nineteenth-century façade of the Prigioni (the work ofGiuseppe Valadier), now housing the Muse-um of Criminology.

The crossing with the Via dei Banchi Vecchimarks the boundary between the districts ofPonte and of Regola, at the point crossed inthe past by the sewer called the Chiavica diSanta Lucia. The corner block comprises theHouse of the Confraternity of the Piaghe diCristo, which includes the seventeenth-cen-tury Church of San Filippo Neri, betterknown as San Filippino, restored in 1728 byFilippo Raguzzini. After going past the well-known Virgilio secondary school at no. 38,reconstructed from the seventeenth-centu-ry Ghisleri College, we come to the Churchof Santo Spirito dei Napoletani, rebuilt bythe Confraternity of that name in 1584 onthe remains of the church of Sant’Aurea (itwas then radically restructured during the18th century). After the Palazzo del Colle-gio Spagnolo, no. 151, built by Antonio Sar-ti in 1862, comes the harmonious concavefaçade of the Church of Santa Caterina daSiena, erected by Paolo Posi in 1762. Oppo-

site this stands the Palazzo Varese, at no.16, designed by Carlo Maderno in 1618. Pro-ceeding on, we arrive at one of the most at-tractive parts of the street, characterizedby the arch that joins Palazzo Farnese andthe “Camerini Farnesiani”. Before reachingit, mention should be made of the seven-teenth-century Palazzo Falconieri (thefaçade is the work of Francesco Borromini,who was also responsible for the internal ex-tensions; since 1927 it has been the seat ofthe Hungarian Academy), which stands along-side the Church of Santa Maria dell’Orazionee Morte, at no. 1, built by Ferdinando Fugain 1737 on the site of the sixteenth-centurychurch belonging to the Confraternity of thesame name (which undertook the burial ofthe unknown dead and praying for theirsouls). At no. 186 stands the gate markingthe rear boundary of the famous Farnesebuilding, opposite the simple building of theQuattro Camerini nn. 253-260. After themaking of the arch, promoted by CardinalOdoardo Farnese, the rooms were decorat-ed with frescoes by such eminent artists asAnnibale Carracci, Domenichino and Lan-franco, only to be dismembered already inthe mid-Seventeenth century. The pretty lit-tle piazza after this contains the Mascheronefountain, placed in its present site in 1903.Finally the Via Giulia ends in Piazza San Vin-cenzo Pallotti, which is on the opposite sideof the Lungotevere from the fifteenth-cen-tury Ponte Sisto. Once containing the mon-umental Acqua Paola fountain (representingthe spectacular backdrop of the Via Giulia,this was reassembled in its present positionacross the Tiber when the works were car-ried out in the Nineteenth century to re-arrange the area), this is dominated by theOspizio dei Mendicanti, known also as theOspizio dei Cento Preti (Hospice of the Hun-dred Priests), built at the end of the Six-teenth century by Domenico Fontana at thebehest of Pope Sixtus V. The portico towardsthe Tiber, corresponding to the part of thecomplex pertaining to the Conservatoire ofthe Zoccolette, was rebuilt at the end of theNineteenth century by Antonio Parisi.

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I s the street that runs at right-angles, bet-ween Via del Corsa and Piazza di Spagna,

pointing itself like a telescope at the back-drop of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti. Theroad was first opened in 1554 at the wish ofPope Paolo III Farnese, with the name of ViaTrinitatis. It started from Piazza Nicosia, fol-lowing a route which, cutting across CampoMarzio corresponded to what are now Via delClementino, Via di Fontanella Borghese andVia dei Condotti. The road came into exi-stence in the heart of an area which beganits urbanization towards the end of the 1300swith the construction of the St. Giacomo inAugusta Hospital, and successively by the in-tervention of the Popes who sought to im-prove the communications between the Va-tican and the Centre of the City. The inte-rest in this particular area came to a headwith Pope Leone X dei Medici who entrustedBartolomeo Della Valle and Raimondo Capo-diferro, responsible for road planning andelegantly named “Maestri di Strade” (TheMasters of the roads) with the task of straigh-tening up the route between “Porta del Po-polo” and the Vatican. The same Pope or-dered the opening up the Via Leonina (Thefuture Via di Ripetta) alongside the Via delCorso which it was his intention should re-place Via Giulia as the centre of urban de-velopment. This was also in line with a pro-ject of which the importance was emphasi-sed by the summoning of two artists of thecalibre of Antonio da Sangallo and Raffael-lo Sanzio for the task. This was no less thanthe beginning of the most imposing expres-sion of urbanization of all time, The “Tri-dent”, which was established later by theopening of Via Clementia (the present Viadel Babuino). Then with the intervention ofPope Paolo III Via del Corso was rebuilt, Viadel Babuino was completed, and by meansof Via Trinitatis the Trident was connectedto Trinità dei Monti, and projected obliquelyacross the Tiber. The aspect of farnesian ur-banistics that really stands out is the crea-tion of straight roads pointed dramatically

at architectural backgrounds, as in the caseof Via Condotti laid out along the axis of thefaçade of Trinità dei Monti. In the succee-ding period thanks to the illuminated poli-cies of the “urbanistic Popes” such as Gre-gorio X111 and Sisto V, the area was furtherdeveloped, especially as far as its social andmaterièl fabric was concerned. Gregorio wasresponsible for promoting the restaurationof the aqueduct of the Acqua Vergine andthe realization of public fountains which be-came splendid elements in the street furni-ture of the city, Sisto saw to the siting of theobelisk in Piazza del Popolo as a symbol ofthe point where three road axes converged.The present name of the road derives di-rectly from the passage of the monumentalconduits of the Acqua Vergine which, plan-ned to carry water to the low lying part ofthe city, were realised in the course of thegrandiose project entrusted to Giacomo Del-la Porta. It is the only one of the eleven prin-ciple acquducts which used to supply Romewhich has remained active from the time ofAugustus, when it was built, to the presentday. The increased prestige of the area sur-rounding the Trident encouraged some of thepatrician families more in the public eye tochoose to construct their palaces there, thusgiving life to a city centre which enclosedthe most part of the extraordinary artisticpatrimony of the City. In the 1700s this areawas further enriched by the dramatic mo-numental display of the Ripetta river port,and the classic staircase of Trinità dei Mon-ti, the siting of which was dictated by the li-ne of the Via Trinitatis. Via dei Condotti istoday renowned both for the prestige of thepalaces that stand along it and for the pre-sence of the most elegant shops of The Ca-pital, as well as some historic clubs and ca-fés frquented by artists and intellectualswhich bear testimony to the cosmopolitannature of the area and of the street itself.

The way along Via Condotti starting at LargoGoldoni is marked by a period of history im-

VIA CONDOTTI

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portant from the point of view of the rela-tionship between the Holy City and theCatholic countries: The church of the SSTrinità degli Spagnoli. The building, recog-nisable from the façade of the church whichstands at the beginning of the street, waserected in the second quarter of the 1700son the initiative of Diego Morcillo famousrepresentative of the order of the TrinitariCalzati which financed the construction of aTemple and a Convent for the confraternity,because Rome lacked a centre of this nature.During the first architectural phase of 1732the Palace which would house the seat ofthe centuries old Hospice (facing the Corso)was put in order, and between 1741 and 1750were Erected the Church and the Convent,no. 36 di Via Condotti, following an overallproject designed by the Portuguese archi-tect Emanuel Rodriguez Dos Santos assistedby Giuseppe Sardi as the Director of Works,

while the internal decoration of the churchwas in the hands of José Hermosilla y Sa-moval. In 1734 the Complex, one of the verybest examples of roman rococò architecture,passed under the protection of Philip Vth,King of Spain, who had his Shield and RoyalCoat of Arms (still visible) fixed upon theConvent and Church doors. The interior ofthe latter animated by interesting fragmentsof paintings (to which should be added thepriceless canvases of Preciado and Velasquezconserved within the Convent), is based onan elliptic ground plan articulated by sidechapels (three on each side) interconnect-ed by arches and covered by a cupola. Theoutstanding aspect of the Complex is how-ever its perfect architectural integration in-to the surrounding City, which is determinedby the happy solution of the concave façade(animated by the motives in relief inspiredby SS. Trinità) and by the angular balcony ofthe Hospice. In 1841 the Complex was con-fiscated by France, and the Hospice was soldat auction. Then at the end of the same cen-tury, the number of Trinitari having shrunkconsiderably, the Spanish Domenicans of theCollege of the SS. Trinità for the SpanishDomenican Missions to The Islands of ThePhilippines moved in. The Order of the SS.Trinità in fact, founded in the XIIth Centuryby Giovanni De Matha and Felice Di Valoiswith the aim of ransoming christians enslavedby muslims, had with the passing of time,exhausted the motive for its initial founda-tion. At nn. 55-57 at an angle to the formerVia Serena (currently Via Belsiana) is Palaz-zo Ansellini, no. 21 corresponds to PalazzoAvogadro Negri Arnoldi, and in the sameblock is included also the Palazzo of the Mar-quises Arconati (entrance in Via Bocca diLeone no. 21). Corresponding to no. 61stands Palazzo Della Porta Negroni Caffarellibuilt in the second half of the 1600s and inthe first half of the 1800s completely re-structured eclettically in neo–fifteenth cen-tury style under Pope Pio IX. From the Prin-cipal Entrance in Via Condotti inserted in themonumental façade crowned by an artisticcornice on paired columns there is access to

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a beautiful internal courtyard, with a foun-tain from the 1700s and a way out onto ViaBocca di Leone overlooked by the rear façadeof the Palace. There are other internal court-yards currently occupied by elegant shopswhich open out of the ground floor. Then nextcomes one of the most significant buildingsin the whole street, the Palazzo of the Sov-ereign Military order of Jerusalem, at no.68, identified by the inscription on the cor-ner at the angle with Via Bocca di Leone. Thebuilding enclosed in a group of constructionsof the late 1400s, originally known as Palaz-zo Provani was acquired in the fifteenth cen-tury by Giacomo Bosio, agent of the Orderof Malta in Rome. It next passed to AntonioBosio (an important archaeologist and greatexplorer of the Catacombs, known as the“Colombo of underground Rome”) who, hav-ing enlarged the Palace by annexing the build-ing behind which gave on to Via Bocca diLeone, gathered together there a vast col-lection of tombstones, marble, and antiqueinscriptions which on his death in 1629 werebequeathed to the Order of Malta in orderthat it could there realise its own Seat inRome. The Sovereign Order Hospitalero andMilitary of the Cavaliers of Jerusalem, alsoknown as the Order of the Hospitallers of St.John of Jerusalem or Joannites or even Cav-aliers of Rhodes, later of Malta (following thedefinitive transfer of the Order to that islandwhich took place in 1527), were founded in1100 by Gerard di Gerusalemme with the aimof providing help where it was needed, andin obedience to the Augustinian Rules. Car-lo Aldobrandini the agent for the religiousactivity of the Order proposed the unifica-tion of the two buildings resulting in the pres-ent arrangement. Then in the 1700s the Am-bassador to The Vatican of the Order pro-posed the decoration of the courtyard, theaddition of another floor and the construc-tion of stables. In 1834 The Order transferredthe Sovereign Council from Malta to Romewhich then established itself in the Palace inVia Condotti. In the second half of the cen-tury the building was radically restructured(the building still houses the Chancellery of

the Order). In front stands the older part ofthe Palazzo Nunes, at no. 20, which was re-alised by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi between1658 and 1660 (the principal entrance is inVia Bocca di Leone, while that which giveson to Via Condotti has been glassed in). Inthe 1800s the complex was purchased by theTorlonia Family who entrusted the architectAntonio Sarti with the restructuring of it andthe rearrangement of the small square thatstands in front, as well as the constructionof the palace for guests (later to be used asthe site of the exclusive Albergo d’Inghilter-ra). Then next comes the Palazzo MaruscelliLepri, at no. 11, built on the corner of ViaMario de’ Fiori in the second half of the 17thcentury. The attribution of the Palace is un-certain (it could possibly be in some way con-nected to some of the works of AlessandroSpecchi), it is characterised by an unusualplan and by a beautiful façade, also this isdefined by an unusual motive, that of hav-ing the windows grouped in threes united bya single frame. It was restructured in the sec-ond half of the 1800s by Virginio Vespignani,and there lived the French author HenriBeyle, better known as Stendahl. In front ofthe Palace defined by the window display ofthe prestigious trademark of the JewellerBulgari (a building which used to belong tothe Monastery of San Silvestro in Capite, no.9) is situated the highly celebrated CaffèGreco, at no. 86. Founded in 1760 as can beread on the plaque fixed next to its sign, itbecame, in the beginning of the 1800s, oneof the most fashionable meeting places inthe City. At the beginning of the century, infact, it was frequented by the most renownedmembers of the literary world (Gogol, Sten-dahl, Leopardi), the music world (Berlioz,Wagner) and from that of art (Thorvaldsenand the artists of The Grand Tour) to saynothing of the crowned heads of All Europe,and patriots such as Silvio Pellico. It main-tained its fame even in the post-war period,thanks to the custom of the artists of theSchool of Rome, and writers of the calibreof Ennio Flaiano and Vitaliano Brancati tocite a few examples.

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Once it answered to the name of Via Fe-lice and it is part of the long straight

road that was opened by Pope Sisto V in 1593to connect the church of Trinità dei Montiwith the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore andSanta Croce in Jerusalem. Despite the shortduration of his Pontificate Sisto V, born Fe-lice Peretti Montalto (1585–1590) is one ofthe Popes who most left his mark on the hi-story of the town planning and building ofRome. He was responsible for the genial planfor the reconstruction of the great RomanBasilica, and above all for the system ofroads, even outside the Aurelian Walls, in-terconnecting them. The Pope set his handsystematically on the whole city through theadmirable works of his trusty architect theticinese Domenico Fontana who expressedin full the renaissance principle of the straightroad (rettifilo) and who created a new con-cept of town planning hinged on practicaland effective connections between the prin-cipal poles of interest, the religious, the ce-lebratory, the monumental and the civic,thus laying the foundations of the modernRome and the infrastructure upon which waslater based the nineteenth century post-uni-fication urbanization of the new Capital. Thedecisive contribution of the ‘sistine’ plancarried forward under the announcement ofexceptional Jubilees, was emphasised by the“ line of sight “ connections between theobelisks, a magical corollary to the networkof roads, and a clear marker to draw atten-tion to the multiple distant views of a singleHoly Site, along the telescopic layout of theroads. A good four of the thirteen columnsthat overlook Rome were installed by SistoV (at the Vatican, the Esquilino, in Piazza delPopolo and at The Lateran). The first roadcleared by Sisto V was the Strada Felice, cor-responding to the present Via Sistina, ViaQuattro Fontane, Via De Pretis and Via Car-lo Felice which celebrated, with its originalname, the Pope himself. The road cuts acrossthe Via Pia (which corresponds to the actualVia del Quirinale and XXth Settembre) at

right-angles, crosses the four-road junctionat Quattro Fontane joining up in fact andemblematically with the road opened in 1561by Pope Pio IV. This personal road of Sisto V,the real backbone of the new network ofroads, thus came to perform both a primaryfunctional and symbolic role tied in with theconnection between three prominent reli-gious fulcrums with the marvellous papal re-sidence, the admirable Villa Peretti Montal-to located in the centre of the Via Felice.The whole complex, (broken up for the con-struction of the Stazione Termini railway sta-tion and the clearing up of the surroundingarea) stood near the antique Liberian Basi-lica, the principal Marian church in the Cityand around which The Pope concentratedthe more significant works that he under-took with the help of Fontana. Santa MariaMaggiore was marked as a crucial centrepoint in the star-shaped street system for-mulated by the “Town-planner Pope“. Withthis Via Sistina promoted itself then and insucceeding centuries as the obvious point ofreference for the development of this partof the City, particularly after the building ofthe great ornamental and theatrical con-struction that is the staircase of Trinità deiMonti, erected in 1723 by Francesco De Sanc-tis. In 1870 after the Declaration of RomeThe Capital new demands, especially fortown planning, came to the fore, and for thisreason the works were intensified in the areaof The Trident and along the same Via Sisti-na already for some time singled out by in-ternational tourism as a favoured goal, fol-lowing a tradition of important palazzi andexclusive hotels still to the present day.

The route followed by Via Sistina begins fromthe height of Trinità dei Monti along the epon-imous street is marked by an important his-toric-architectonical episode: the presenceof Villa Medici. In 1572 Cardinal GiovanniRicci da Montepulciano intervened on theoriginal edifice which dates from 1540. Hefirst enlarged the estate by buying land from

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the Frati di Santa Maria del Popolo, he nexthad built upon it a new Palazzo designed byNanni di Baccio Bigio and Annibale Lippi.Then four years later, when the propertypassed to Cardinal Ferdinando dei Medici,Bartolomeo Ammannati was given the taskof enlarging the building, and he completedthe central portion, the beautiful porticodecorated with work in plaster on the façadefacing the garden (the opulence of whichcontrasts strongly with the austere appear-ance of the other façade), and the south tow-er. In the same period, the splendid garden,which even today maintains its original layout, was designed. From 1884 it has beenthe seat of The French Academy which wasfounded in 1666 by King Louis IV to allowyoung French artists to perfect their art dur-ing a stay in Rome. The little square in frontof the Palazzo is embellished by an attrac-tive fountain in the form of a cup built in1587 by Annibale Lippi with a basin acquiredby Ferdinando dei Medici from the Monks ofSan Salvatore in Lauro and functioning withthe water of the Acqua Felice. The restau-ration of the Acqua Felice Acqueduct thatlike the road recalls his name was yet an-other admirable undertaking of Pope Sisto V

within his grandiose city-wide plan. Adja-cent to the park of the Villa rises the Com-plesso del Sacro Cuore whose Convent andInstitute occupy the area of the old Villa diLucullo, better known as the Horti Lucul-liani, one of the ancient suburban villas en-closed in the City’s green belt which onceextended haphazardly between the Pincio,the Quirinale and the Esquilino. Then thereis the small and attractive Piazza dellaTrinità dei Monti opened and paved in 1586by Cardinal Ricci and connected to the finalstretch of the Via Felice. At the centre ofthe Piazza towers the obelisk which comesfrom the nearby archeological site the Hor-ti Sallustiani and was erected there by PopePio IV symbolically halfway between two oth-er famous sistine columns that at Flaminiaand that at the Esquilino. Behind the Piazzarises the majestic façade of the chiesa del-la Santissima Trinità dei Monti which pres-ents itself as an architectural yet theatricalbackdrop for the scenery of the famous stair-way sweeping down to the equally well knownPiazza di Spagna. Looked after, protectedand financed by The King of France, thechurch belonged from its beginning to theFrench followers of the Rules San Francescodi Paola, the founder of the Ordine dei Min-imi closely connected to King Louis XI. In 1494the son of the latter acquired land on thePincio to build a religious complex, the workon which began at the beginning of the suc-ceeding century. The church, built in gothicstyle (witness the great ribs of the transept,the pointed arches and the ceiling of ogivalvaulting) was completed in 1550, the Clois-ters and the Monastery followed some yearslater. In the course of the second half of thefifteenth century the façade was finished,framed by two lateral towers with a chapelbeneath. The graceful double ramp in frontdates from 1588, and takes as an examplethat designed by Michelangelo for the Palaz-zo Senatorio at the Campidoglio, and wascommissioned by Sisto V (whose Coat of Armsappears on the pillars) and once again car-ried out by his favourite architect Domeni-co Fontana. The work on the french edifice

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continued in various phases until the end ofthe 1700s with the completion of the Sac-risty and the re-covering of the vaults (theoriginal gothic style covering being substi-tuted by a new ceiling designed by Giovan-ni Pannini). After new interventions in the1800s including yet another re-overing of theceiling in 1828 the church was conceded tothe Nuns of The Sacred Heart who continueto occupy it today.The next stretch of ViaSistina is animated by the presence of twoof the most well known and exclusive romanhotels: the Hassler Villa Medici, at no. 6 inthe Piazza, and the Hotel De la Ville (nn.69–75 in the Via) witnesses to the cosmo-politan nature which with its pensions, ho-tels and the houses of foreign artists (fa-mously the protagonists of The Grand Tour).The first named hotel was built in 1885 byAlbert Hassler on the site of the demolishedsixteenth century Palazzetto dei Santerelli;after a partial reconstruction in 1892 by Al-berto Hassler, the hotel underwent a radicalrebuilding in 1944 at the hands of its newowner Oscar Wirth, Swiss like Hassler, andthis gave it the elegance it has to this day.Here have found hospitality the famous fromthe world of politics from Truman to Kennedy,and from the world of the spectacle, andhere the names of Charlie Chaplin and Mar-lene Dietrich suffice.The Hotel De La Ville, in fact, was built in1924 by the Hungarian architect Joseph Vagonon the spot where once stood a boardinghouse made out of the Palazzetto owned bythe venetian painter Giuseppe Zucchi andhis wife the famous Swiss artist Angelica Kauf-mann; the junction between Via Sistina andVia Gregoriana is marked by Palazzo Zuccai,at no. 30 di Via Gregoriana, no. 14 di Pi-azza Trinità dei Monti) the project for whichwas elaborated in 1592 by Federico Zuccaito be the site of an art academy and withthe help of his brother Taddeo, the sameartist decorated the interior. The façade giv-ing onto Via Gregoriana is recognisable fromthe windows framed by bizarre masks, andis a typical and charming example of a pass-ing architectural fantasy produced, in this

case by one of the protagonists of romanmannerism. The portico is the seventeenthcentury opera of Filippo Juvara. Adjacent,facing on to Via Sistina is Palazzo Stroganoff,at no. 59, which was rebuilt in neo-fifteenthcentury style at the end of the eighteen hun-dreds and today houses the Hertzian Library.The nn. 123–125 correspond to Palazzo Dot-ti which dates from the end of the seven-teenth century. It is worthy of note for hav-ing hosted the famous Russian Author Nico-laj Gogol. A bit further on comes the verywell known italian Revue Theatre, The Sisti-na, nn. 128–131, built half way through thenineteen hundreds by Marcello Piacentino,a leading roman architect in the years of theGovernatorato. It was the only grand the-atre of the postwar period, and was con-structed over the ruins of the church of San-ta Francesca Romana – and so the end of theroad is reached an end marked by the churchof SS. Idelfonso and Tommaso da Villanovabuilt in 1619 by the Spanish Augustinian Bare-footed Fathers called The Recolletti of San-t’Agostino. Followers of the severe rule ofLuigi de Léon. Originally in the form of asmall oratorio with a hospice attached, thechurch was enlarged in 1666 with the ap-proval of Pope Alessandro VII once the ob-jections of the Spanish Trinitari Fathers whoofficiated in the nearby church of SantaFrancesca Romana (later destroyed) had beenovercome. The Author of this project whichwas based upon Chapels flanking the longbody of the church, and covered by a ribbedvault (inspired by the adjacent “borromi-ana“ Propaganda Fide) was the DomenicanGiuseppe Paglia, while the façade was de-signed in 1725 by Francesco Ferrari. The jour-ney along the ancient Via Felice ends todayin Piazza Barberini, made famous by thebaroque fountain by Bernini in 1643. How-ever the real conclusion, even if nowadaysit is only symbolic, is the pomp of the Basil-ica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the less stri-dent, but not for this any less significant,Basilica founded by Sant’Elena, Mother ofConstantine the Great and named after TheSanta Croce di Gerusalemme.

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I s one of the three roads that fan out fromPiazza del Popolo, a flanking thoroughfa-

re of the so-called Trident and is an axis thatjoins two of the most celebrated Roman Squa-res. The road crosses the extremity of Cam-po Marzio, in obedience to a scheme of townplanning which stems from the area coveredby the first stretch of the ancient Via Flami-nia (currently the Corso) and from two otheritineraries of classic origin, each marked atits beginning by “metae”, two enormous mau-soleums shaped as pyramids (one of whichsurvived until half way through the 1500s).So a sort of “Trident” existed in ancient ti-mes, even if it was not regolarised. After theconstruction of the Hospital of St. Giacomoin Augusta which provided the incentive forthe urbanisation of the area, as well as therebuilding of the church of Santa Maria delPopolo at the behest of Pope Sisto IV in viewof the Great Jubilee of 1475 and as a presti-gious element at the Main Northern Gate tothe City (Porta Flaminia), then at the startof the 1500s began the grandiose urbanisticoperation that would lead to the establish-ment of the “Trident”. Pope Leone X dei Me-dici was the initiator who in 1517 entrustedto Antonio Sangallo the Younger the task ofputting in order one of the ancient paths run-ning beside the Corso and naming it Via Leo-nina; it corresponds to the present Via di Ri-petta. On the occasion of the Jubilee of 1525Pope Clemente VII dei Medici took over theproject of his cousin, setting in hand the la-ying out of the third axis of the Trident andto which he gave the name Via Clementia.Later Pope Paolo III Farnese took a hand inthe project, completing it in 1543 and re-baptized it with the name Via Paulina Trifa-ria and this is today Via del Babuino. Thuswas the Trident established. principallythrough the combined will of the two Medi-ci Popes and finally, at the end of the 1500s,crowned by the erection of the obelisk at thewish of Pope Sisto V in Piazza del Popolo atthe symbolic junction of the three roads. Inthe 1600s, after the completion of the re-

stauration of the Porta del Popolo, the pro-ject of Rainaldi was set in train to build twinchurches, to stand at the entrance to theflanking roads of the Trident as sacred “pro-pilei”, recalling the ancient “Metae” whichstood there before. From one of these chur-ches, that of Santa Maria dei Carmelitani ofthe Sicilian Province of Montesanto, beganVia del Babuino, one of the more elegant andrepresentative roads of the borough of Cam-po Marzio, at the centre of the City. The pre-sent name of the street comes from a statueof a Satyre with bagpipes reclining on a kindof cornucopia which because of its appea-rence was baptized “babbuino” by the po-pulation, this was later corrected to “Ba-buino”. Along the road rises the fifteenthcentury Palazzetto of Alessandro De Gran-dis, in 1571 the first private house to be con-nected to the water supply of the Acqua Ver-gine, after Pope Gregorio XIII had initiatedits restauration (one of the conduits was lo-cated in Via del Babuino). The building wasthen incorporated into a larger constructionbelonging to the Boncompagni family, and in1576 the same Pontifice attached the ancientsculpture to its façade. It was moved againin 1887 into a niche in the form of a portalin the façade of the same Palazzo (at the sa-me time, the basin from beneath the groupwas incorporated as part of a fountain at thePalazzo of Pope Pio IV on Via Flaminia). The“ape” arrived at its present site, on the walladjacent to the façade of the church of San-t’Atanasio dei Greci in 1957, bringing with itthe reputation of a “talking statue” like thefamous Pasquino, “the babbuino” was, infact, used for sticking anonymous mottos andcomments, often very cutting, about theChurch and politicians, called, once upon atime, “babbuinati”.

The walk along Via del Babuino punctuatedby some of the most exclusive antique shopsin the Capital, starts at the crossroads withVia San Sebastianello (the road up to Trinitàdei Monti) the view from which permits a

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sight of the theatrical “Nicchione” placedat the end of the Via della Croce. This at-tractive construction was realised in the 1700sbehind a wall against which previously wasleant a small chapel that contained a paint-ing of St. Sebastian. The author was Fran-cesco De Sanctis, the same who conceivedthe scenography at the nearby staircase ofPiazza di Spagna. The chapel was destroyedin 1728, to be rebuilt in1733 (perhaps to thedesigns of Filippo Raguzzini), the concavewall of the niche is decorated by a beautifulframe of stucco surmounted by the crownand palm leaves that are the symbols of amartyr, placed there originally to frame apicture of the Saint after whom the street isnamed. Back on the main road at no. 92 (atthe corner with Via Alibert) is Palazzetto Raf-faelli built in 1826 by Giuseppe Valadier forthe Counsellor to the Vatican State of theT-sar of Russia. At no. 89 stands Palazzetto

Valadier placed by itself at the corner be-tween Via Alibert, Via del Babuino and ViaMargutta. The edifice was constructed in twophases during the first half of the 1800s byAntonio Sarti, and owes its fame to the factthat there, for a long time, lived the cele-brated roman artist (architect of the HolyApostolic and academic Palaces of San Luca)Giuseppe Valadier (who died there in 1839)responsible for the splendid eighteenth cen-tury laying out of Piazza del Popolo and thehill of the Pincio that overlooks it. In frontVia Vittoria opens, among its architecturalscenary the façade of the church of SS.Giuseppe and Orsola (now deconsecrated)and the adjacent monastery. The whole, be-longing to the Ursolines, was founded in 1680by Camilla Orsini Borghese and by Laura Mani-nozzi d’Este as a convent school for younggirls. The church part of the complex is cur-rently the theatre–studio of the “ Silvio D’Am-ico” National Academy of Dramatic Art. Whilethe convent, which dates from 1870, hoststhe National Academy and Conservatory ofSanta Cecilia. Next comes the Greek Col-lege, at no. 149, joined to the church ofSant’Atanasio dei Greci by a picturesquewalkway. The church was founded in 1576 byPope Gregorio XIII to welcome the greekscoming from Asia Minor and living in Rome,and to guarantee assistance to the religiousminority of the greco-albanian rite. Thechurch was built on land belonging to Tom-maso Manriquez, it was restructured in 1769at the wish of Clemente XIII and at the handsof the architect Carlo Puri De Marchis, towhom we owe the façade giving on to Via delBabuino. Originally allotted to the Jesuits, ittoday belongs to the Blessed Confederationof Chevatogne. Standing next to the famousfountain of the Babuino is the brick façadeof the church dedicated to the saint ofAlexandria of Egypt, the origin of the proj-ect for which dates back to 1588 and couldbe attributed to Giacomo Della Porta. Theinterior based on a plan with three choirs,(which is relatively rare in roman architec-ture, but is much used in the east) is, in thearea of the apse, defined by the iconostasis,

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the presbiterial enclosure typical of thechurches of the catholic greek orthodox rite.

Palazzo Boncompagni Cerasi, at nn. 51–52,one of the more important buildings in Viadel Babuino is in front. It was rebuilt in 1738incorporating the already existing 15th cen-tury structure. The handsome façade is dec-orated by two portals, one crowned by a bal-cony, the other by a broken tympanum; bothfigure the heraldic dragon of the Boncom-pagni (which also occur on the windows ofthe first floor) the noble family to which be-longed Pope Gregorio XIII, he who installedthe famous “babbuino” in 1576. The Palacepassed to Count Antonio Cerasi in 1858 whocommissioned Rodolfo Lanciani to add on an-other floor. Following on at nn. 38–41 isPalazzo Sterbini recognisable by the nichescontaining busts of emperors which punctu-ate the façade. A little bit further on is theneo-gothic complex of the Anglican churchof All Saints erected at the end of the 1800son the site formerly occupied by the villa ofFlavio Orsini and to the plan of George Ed-mund Street, one of the protagonists of theGothic revival in victorian architecture. Thesingularity of the building in red brick andlaterite (an indication of the attention paidto chromatic values typical of Street and theArts and Crafts Movement of which he wasone of the main protagonists) lies in the factthat the part that gives on to Via del Babuinois not the façade but the apse, according toan arrangement which led to the location ofthe entrance at the foot of the octagonalsteeple (the portal in the adjacent Via diGesù e Maria opens instead on to the lefthand nave). In Via del Babuino no. 151 in aniche on the corner with Via San Giacomostands out one of the many roman “Madon-nelle” which are picturesque expressions ofpopular devotion very common in the 1700s.A simple frame of marble in the form of acanopied niche holding, in this case, a highrelief of The Virgin and Child, the work ofan unknown sculptor in the eighteenth cen-tury. Corresponding to no. 169 is the bulk ofneo-fifteenth century Palazzo Emiliani. Re-

sulting from the incorporation of the variousbuildings that were already there, the com-plex was built in 1869 to the plans of LucaCaramini. The final stretch of Via del Babuinois punctuated by the eighteenth century ed-ifices of two prestigious Hotels standing onein front of the other. The Albergo Piranesi,at nn. 195–197, and The Hotel De Russie, atno. 9, the former was installed in PalazzoNainer which had been built around 1821 ac-cording to a design of Giuseppe Valadier thattook in part of the Convent of the Agostini-ani. The Monastery had a large garden thatreached as far as the church of Santa Mariadi Montesanto which is the boundary todayof the eighteenth century building. The Con-vent was first occupied by French troops andthen in 1811 both sides of the building – thatpart which gives on to the Corso and thatwhich faces Via del Babuino were trans-formed into private residences. In the courseof the work for the urbanization of Piazzadel Popolo Valadier also refaced the con-structions that flank the Porta as well asthose around the so-called Twin Churches inaccordance with the idea of rendering har-monious and homogenous the prospect ofthe Piazza and the buildings that look out onto it. The building which currently housesthe Piranesi was increased in height in 1872at the same time as the grandiose restora-tion that followed the declaration of Romeas Capital, when the borough was the objectof urban interventions set in train by the“Umbertine” building trade and the area ofthe Trident in particular, already for sometime priveleged by international tourism, sawa notable increase in the construction of ho-tels and services for tourists. In front standsthe exclusive Hotel De Russie constructed inthe first half of the 1800s in a much largerarchitectural complex, the property of theTorlonia family, this also was achieved withthe collaboration of Valadier. Between 1870and 1872 two further floors planned by Nico-la Carnevali were added to the Palazzo in ac-cordance with its future as a Hotel of pres-tige. It was also called The Hotel of Kings be-cause of the exclusive clientele.

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This is the main thoroughfare in the San-t’Angelo district, running between San-

ta Maria del Pianto and the Theatre of Mar-cellus at Monte Savello. It is a continuationof the Via del Pianto, the road runningthrough the ancient district called de cac-cabariis and the Platea Iudea, the area bor-dering the quarter inhabited by the Jewishpopulation as from the thirteenth century.It took its present name after the procla-mation of Rome as the country’s Capital in1870, when many urban spaces were reor-ganized, in some cases the actual namesbeing changed. Before then it was called theVia di Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, and the squa-re that it led into was known as the Forumpecium, as it had been Rome’s most impor-tant fish market ever since the Middle Ages.Selling took place in the small piazza oppo-site and in the actual structures of the Por-tico D’Ottavia, where there were stone slabsfor setting out the fish: the slabs, supportedon rows of bricks, belonged to noble fami-lies which hired them out. One outstandingfeature of the district, with its characteri-stic commercial vocation, was the massivepresence of some of the best-known RomanConfraternities, including the FishmongersCorporation, with its headquarters in thechurch of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria. Impor-tant monumental items are concentrated inthis area, and almost all of them focus onthe Portico d’Ottavia, the model elementand point of reference of the whole district.Directly connected with the road were alsothe Circus Flaminius (built in 221 b.C. by C.Flaminius Nepos, who also gave his name tothe Via Flaminia) and the majestic bulk ofthe Theatre of Marcellus. The evocative back-ground to the road, in the part towards theriver, is represented by another importantarchitectural structure, the Pons Judaeo-rum, or Ponte Fabricio (also known as thePonte dei Quattro Capi, or “Bridge of theFour Heads”, from the two herms of the four-headed Janus on the parapet). This bridgewas built by Lucius Fabricius in 62 b.C., and

until the Ponte Sixto was built in 1475 it wasthe main connection with Trastevere. Thename still today qualifying the bridge is lin-ked with the numerous Jewish settlementsin the area around the Portico d’Ottavia andthe Theatre of Marcellus, where they hadmoved already in the Thirteenth century (af-ter living for more than a thousand years inTrastevere), and were subsequently stigma-tized with the construction of the ghetto. In1555 Pope Paul IV decreed in fact that loftywalls were to be erected around the area,with two entrances, to separate the Jewsfrom the Christians. Silvestro Peruzzi (son ofthe better known Baldassarre) was commis-sioned to carry out the work. Later a thirdopening was added: the main one was in Piaz-za Giudea, the second one at Sant’Angelo inPescheria, and the last one in front of thechurch of Gregorio della Divina Pietà (at thepoint where the Synagogue now stands). Atthe end of the Sixteenth century the area ofthe Ghetto was extended at the behest ofPope Sixtus V, the work being carried out un-der his personal architect, Domenico Fonta-na, which made two more openings. It wasfinally abolished in 1848 and completely de-stroyed in 1887, as was also Piazza Giudea.The urban fabric extending around the Viadel Portico d’Ottavia, and the road itself,are dotted with eminent buildings commis-sioned by important patrician families, whoused the surrounding ancient monuments asopen quarries for materials for their newbuildings, sometimes backing their housesonto the existing complexes. This customcombined with the functional aspect a deeplysymbolic value, as the wealthy bourgeoisieliving in the district identified the Augustanperiod as a myth to bring back to life.The first building we meet along the Via delPortico d’Ottavia, entering it from the Viadel Pianto, is the house of Lorenzo Manili,built from its foundations in 1468. A pecu-liar feature of this house is the long scrollalong the front containing a Latin inscriptionmixed with Greek words and enriched with

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chose Hermodoros of Salamina as the archi-tect. Between 27 and 23 b.C. Augustus hadit rebuilt, dedicating it to his sister Ottavia;new works were later ordered by SeptimiusSeverus and by Caracalla (to whom is dedi-cated the inscription on the tympanum ofthe access propylaeum, consisting of an ar-cade lined with Corinthian columns. To theleft of the Portico is the Pescheria, whichwas extremely important in the Middle Ages,to the extent of determining the composi-tion of the ancient district coat of arms: asilver fish, symbolizing the ancient fish mar-ket. The stands on which to set out the fishfor sale, picturesquely arranged among thecolumns of the Portico d’Ottavia, remainedthere until 1880. Behind it, no. 25, Via diPescheria, rises a medieval tower ascriba-ble to the 13th century, once the propertyof the Grassi and the Particappa families. Al-so in the Via del Portico d’Ottavia stands themost important church in the district, “set”in the propylaeum of the Portico: Sant’An-gelo in Pescheria. Originally entitled to St.Paul, it was founded in 755, as attested bythe precious inscribed plaque set into thebrickwork of the left hand wall of the en-trance. The words in foro piscium were ad-ded to the new dedication to Sant’Angelo in1192. The temple structure, with its basili-ca layout of a nave and two aisles, was re-stored numerous times, starting towards theend of the Sixteenth century with works as-signed by the “Fishmongers’ University” toMartino Longhi the Elder, followed in 1599by the full-scale reconstruction of the churchby Giacomo Della Porta. The church as it ap-pears today dates from 1864 when Pius hadit rebuilt by the architect Alessandro Betoc-chi. Considerable interest also attaches tothe works preserved in the interior, and par-ticularly the rich ornamentation in the litt-le chapel of Sant’Andrea dei Pescivendoli.Architecturally adjacent to the church is theOratorium of Sant’Andrea dei Pescivendo-li, particularly interesting being the fine al-to-rilievo on the façade depicting the fis-herman apostle. The ancient Università deiPescivendoli (Fishmongers’ University), which

ancient elements in alto-relievo (high relief),celebrating the erecting of the building. Theelegant composition of the inscription in-cluded formulae, archaisms and epigraphiccharacters of the Augustean period; in it ap-pears the date 2221 ab Urbe condita (thatis, the house was built 2221 years after thefoundation of the city). Against the left si-de of the Manili house (the side towards Piaz-za Costaguti, which was originally the placeof access to the Ghetto) is the back of theTempietto del Carmelo, a picturesque litt-le structure half-way between a chapel anda typical holy Roman aedicola, built in 1759in honour of Santa Maria del Carmelo of Mon-te Libano. With its semi-elliptical plan linedexternally with robust columns inspired bythe pronaos of the church of Santa Maria del-la Pace, it represents a significant evolutionin monumental forms of the votive aedico-la with the image of the Madonna. The char-ming little chapel was a place for “compul-sory sermons”, that is, ones intended to in-volve the Jews in the Catholic religion. No.13 is the Sixteenth-century house of theFabi family, surmounted by a loggia and witha fine arcaded courtyard. The Fabi’s of Pe-scaria were for a period the owners of theTheatre of Marcellus. Among the monumentsmaking this road so interesting, the most im-portant one is assuredly the Portico d’Otta-via, which gives the road its name. This con-sisted of a structure with a double colonna-de encompassing, in the Hellenistic manner,two temples, dedicated to Jupiter (Giove)Stator and to Juno (Giunone Regina), re-spectively. This work was promoted in 146b.C. by Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, who

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already existed in the Tenth century underthe patronage of Saints Peter and Andrew,from the Sixteenth century had its head-quarters in the church of Sant’Angelo, whe-re it had the use of a chapel of its own (thatof Sant’Andrea). In 1687, when the Univer-sity became a Confraternity, it was given theuse of some premises adjacent to the church,and was given permission to build an Oratorythere, replacing the shops and workshopsthat existed there. Thus the Oratory of San-t’Andrea dei Pescivendoli came to be builtin 1689 by the architect Filippo Tittoni. Along-side the Portico stands the unobtrusive, har-monious Casina dei Vallati, nn. 28-29, ta-king its name from that of the family thathad many properties in the district and itsown noble chapel in the church of Sant’An-gelo in Pescheria. The building (now used asthe administrative office of the City of Ro-me’s Fine Arts Department) is outstandingfor its architecture and for the fair level ofconservation of its medieval walls; it cameto light during the excavations carried out in1926 to clear and restore the nearby thea-tre, under the architects Alberto Calza Biniand Paolo Fidenzoni. This “casina” actuallyconsists of two buildings, dating from the14th and the 16th century, but forming a sin-gle residential unit (the older part is adja-cent to the curve of the theatre). From thegate beside the casina a fine view may behad of the arcades of the theatre and the re-maining fragments of the columns of the Tem-ples of Apollo Sosiano and of Bellona, and ofthe medieval construction of the Catena Ho-tel. At the end of the 19th century the GreatTemple of the Jewish Community, the Syna-gogue, was built at one of the accesses tothe Ghetto. This imposing building with itsGreek cross layout, topped by a pavilion do-me, was built b the architects Vincenzo Co-sta and Osvaldo Armanni in the centre of agarden in which various tombstones from thetimes of the Ghetto are preserved. The finalstretch of the Via del Portico d’Ottavia, to-wards the Tiber, skirts the grandiose remainsof the Theatre of Marcellus: begun by Cae-sar, who wanted to create a structure simi-

lar to the Theatre of Pompey, it was com-pleted by Augustus, who dedicated it to hisnephew Marcellus, his sister Ottavia’s son.The building of the Theatre, formed by twoseries of travertine arches, acted as an in-terruption of the surrounding urban fabric(the Pietas temple was destroyed), but withit an important element of economic and cul-tural connection was established betweenthe district of Sant’Angelo and the Capitol.The structures of the Theatre were conver-ted into an eminent noble residence, whichcame to be generally known as the PalazzoOrsini, no. 30 of the Via di Monte Savello,built on the raised part derived from the ruinsof the stage and of the cavea of the theatre.The fortified residence, which in effect emer-ged in the Middle Ages, belonged first of allto the Pierleoni family, then to the Savelli’s,and from 1716 to the Orsini’s. On the me-dieval nucleus of the complex, the illustriousSavelli family built its “palace”, directly onthe external arches of the cavea of the thea-tre (hence the present name of Monte Sa-vello), on which the eminent Sienese archi-tect Baldassarre Peruzzi worked between1523 and 1527. Other works were carried outin the Eighteenth century, when the palacewas taken over by the Orsini family. Our walkalong the Via del Portico d’Ottavia ends atthe church with the long name of San Gre-gorio Magno della Divina Pietà ai QuattroCapi, which stands, isolated and elegant, fa-cing the Ponte Fabricio (it was in fact alsoknown as San Gregorietto, to distinguish itfrom the larger church of San Gregorio Ma-gno, de ponte Judaerom). Of ancient origin(perhaps dating from the Eleventh century),the church was reorganized in the early partof the Eighteenth century according to a pro-ject of Filippo Barigioni, and then conside-rably restored in the middle of the next cen-tury. In 1934 the apse was added. An odd ele-ment in the fine church front is the oval con-taining the refined Eighteenth-century fre-sco made by Stefano Parrocel. From thevestry it is possible to reach the crypt, theremains of which are part of the structuresof the nearby theatre.

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This street owes its present name, alreadywidely used in the Sixteenth century, to

the “gipponari”, makers of jerkins, many ofwhom lived and had their workshops here.One side of the street is in the Regola dis-trict and the other one is in Parione, and intimes of long ago it was called the Via “Pe-lamantelli”, also derived from activities con-nected with clothing, that of the “repezzo-ri” (menders) and that of the “stramazzato-ri” (dealers in raw silk): in line with this age-old tradition, the Via dei Giubbonari is stilltoday dotted with numerous clothing and un-derwear stores. It was however known alsoas the Via di Santa Barbara, named after thelittle church of that name connected withthe Confraternity of Booksellers which facedonto it, while sometimes it even appearedas Via Florida. The street, corresponding toan ancient arcaded road called the porticusmaxima, was in fact the natural continua-tion of the Via del Pellegrino, known as Flo-rida or Florea, the name given generically tothe thoroughfare running from the Ponte San-t’Angelo to the church of Santa Maria delPianto (corresponding to the present-day Viadei Banchi Vecchi, Via del Pellegrino, PiazzaCampo dei Fiori and Via dei Giubbonari). Thiswas otherwise known as the Via Peregrino-rum, that is, the road used by pilgrims goingto the Vatican, for which reason numeroushotels and artisans’ workshops were esta-blished here. In the corner between the Viadei Giubbonari and the Via dei Balestrari the-re is a wall inscription recording the openingof the present Via del Pellegrino by Sixtus IV,the pope who had works carried out to reor-ganize Piazza di Campo dei Fiori. Via dei Giub-bonari is one of the best-known streets inthe area between the two historic districts,and has always been connected with trading,indeed being regarded as the city’s com-mercial and handicraft heart. This main vo-cation made it the place chosen by many cor-porations and confraternities of trades fortheir headquarters, and led to important pa-trician families becoming established in this

complex, highly varied urban area. The streetis in fact situated at a focal point in the ur-ban fabric of the area, a mere stone’s throwfrom the bridge that Pope Sixtus IV had builtfor the 1475 Jubilee, and from the main roadslinking the administrative and religious cen-tres between the Vatican and the ancientCampo Marzio. The street also runs close tosome of the most important centres of assi-stance in the old city: that of the Companyof the Holy Trinity of Pilgrims and Convale-scents, and those linked to the Ospizio deiCento Preti (the former beggars’ hospitalwhich Sixtus V caused to be built at the endof the Sixteenth century) and to the Con-servatory of the “Zoccolette” (the poor fe-male mendicants of Saints Clement and Cre-scentino). The road, whose modern shop signshave not caused its ancient charm to fade,runs between the spacious modern Largo Cai-roli and the famous Piazza Campo dei Fiori,once the Platea Campi Forum, the site ofmarkets (in the days of Pope Paul II the Gra-scia market was held here) and a place ofexecution. Via dei Giubbonari, lastly, whosename evokes the popular and picturesquereality of a whole era, leads into the heartof an area made eminent by the fact thatcertain prestigious families established them-selves here. Noble houses were attracted bythe architectural and symbolic features ofthe Palazzo Farnese and the Palazzo Spada,in their turn standing in urban surroundingslinked with the earliest history of the “Ur-be”, i.e. ancient Rome. In fact it should notbe forgotten that the street runs at a tan-gent to the ancient site of Pompey’s Thea-tre. This was Rome’s very first repertory thea-tre (theatrum marmoreum), and the largestone in the city, which the Roman GeneralPompey built between 61 and 55 b.C. He firsterected the temple of Venus Victrix (on theruins of which the Palazzo Orsini Pio Righet-ti was built in the middle of the Fifteenthcentury), and then the theatre, whose cur-ved outline can today be recognized by theshape of the Via di Grottapinta.

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The first building of importance encounteredalong the Via dei Giubbonari, on the sideforming part of the Regola district, is thePalazzo Barberini, no. 41, displaying the un-mistakable symbol of the bees, the heraldicemblem of this powerful family. The build-ing was erected in the area occupied by thehouses belonging to the noble Scapucci fam-ily (allies of the Orsini’s), acquired from Mon-signor Francesco Barberini in 1581. The palaz-zo, which the owner wanted to be in the formof a real fortified domus, included a largecourtyard, stables and a series of workshops,while the architecturally adjacent houseswere also included in it. Various architectssucceeded each other in supervision of theworks, all of them very well known: FlaminioPonzio, Fabrizio Breccioli and Carlo Mader-no. The building was later enlarged at thebehest of Carlo Barberini, to whom it hadbeen entrusted in 1623 by his more famousbrother Maffeo (who had been elected popewith the name of Urban VIII). Between 1640and 1644 the Roman architect Francesco Con-tini, commissioned by Taddeo Barberini, su-pervised the expansion works towards theVia dei Pettinari and reconstructed the en-trance giving onto the Piazza del Monte diPietà. This Domus magna of the Barberinifamily, in the middle of the Eighteenth cen-tury, after having served as the General Houseof the Discalced Carmelites, was taken overby the Monte di Pietà (Municipal Pawnshop).The new owners continued the enlargementworks, including the definition of the ovalentrance hall with the main staircase, thework of Nicola Giansimoni, and the con-struction of the arch behind the road called

Via dell’Arco del Monte, a delightful view ofwhich can be fully enjoyed from the Via deiGiubbonari. In making our way along thestreet we can linger at some of the mostbeautiful and important churches in the city,one of them actually in the middle of theroad, namely the small church entitled toSanta Barbara, otherwise known as thechurch of the Librari. Of ancient founda-tion, it owes this latter name to the fact thatin 1601 it was granted to the Confraternityof the Librari, which included booksellers,printers and bookbinders, who had their work-shops in the area. The original church of San-ta Barbara was established in the early partof the Eleventh century in a barrel-vault ofthe Teatro di Pompeo behind it, in the Satiridistrict (at the time the church was in factreferred to as being “in Satro”), which com-prised the area up to the present Via dei Chi-avari and the Via di Grottapinta. After a pe-riod in the possession of the Jesuits, at theend of the Sixteenth century, it underwenta first radical restoration in the early part ofthe Seventeenth century, which gave it itspresent Baroque forms. After further workscarried out in the mid-Nineteenth century,in 1879 the church was taken over by theCharitable Union of Intercession for the Dead(Pia Unione per il suffragio dei trapassati),in lieu of the ancient Confraternity whichhad meanwhile been dissolved. After a rathersombre period, during which it was decon-secrated and even used as a store, the churchof Santa Barbara was duly repaired and re-opened as a place of worship. The charminglittle widening in the road leading up to it isdominated by its white façade, the work ofthe Roman artist Giuseppe Passeri, crownedon its summit by the travertine statue of thesaint. The interior plan is that of a Greekcross and the cross roof is enhanced by anelegant display of stucco elements, arrangedaround frescoed ovals. The entrance fromthe Via dell’Arco del Monte, exactly oppo-site the Largo dei Librari, affords a view ofpart of the ancient Monte di Pietà building(today the head office of the Banca di Ro-ma), inside which we find one of the finest

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examples of the Late Roman-Baroque: thecappella della SS. Trinità. The monumentalbuilding, on whose original Sixteenth-centu-ry nucleus Carlo Maderna worked as from1604, contains the chapel designed byFrancesco Paparelli between 1639 and 1642,conceived as a monument celebrating thehistory and the charitable aims of the Montedi Pietà Institute (founded in 1539 by the Mi-norite Matteo Calvi for the purpose of lend-ing money at very low rates of interest, inorder to combat the social evil of usury, itwas suppressed by the French administrationin 1798. After various ups and downs, in 1937it was taken over by the Cassa di Risparmiodi Roma, today the Banca di Roma). Thechapel contains a fine sculptural decorationof very high quality, exalted by an array ofexcellent polychrome marbles and gilt ele-ments, after a project for the decoration ofthe interior finalized between 1600 and 1670by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (who was alsoresponsible for the structural improvements)and completed by Carlo Bizzaccheri at theend of that century. In this same street, theVia dell’Arco del Monte, we find the cappelladella Madonna del Soccorso. In reality, abroad niche screened by gates, built in 1759,that is, when the Monte di Pietà acquired thebuilding adjacent to its own, formerly thehouse of the Discalced Carmelites, who intheir turn had been donated it by the Bar-berini family. Also belonging to the Barberi-ni’s was the Sixteenth-century house at no.47, characterized by its charming front punc-tuated by elegantly framed windows, espe-cially those decorated by rosettes of the firstorder, arched and architraved (Vasari attrib-utes them to no less an architect than Bal-dassarre Peruzzi). The handsome front wasfurthermore enriched by extensive pictorialdecorations, now very faded, in line with thefashion widespread in Rome between the Fif-teenth and the Sixteenth centuries of deco-rating the façades of noble houses andpalaces with graffiti and paintings. Thethemes depicted were generally taken frommythology, aimed at exalting the prestige ofthe family that possessed the building. A short

way past this we come to the Vicolo delleGrotte (formerly Vicolo delle Cripte), socalled from the ambulatories of Pompey’sTheatre, subsequently reused as workshops.Looming large amidst the buildings on theside of the Via dei Giubbonari in the Parionedistrict is the Baroque Palazzo Ghetti, no.89, on the corner between the Via dei Giub-bonari and the Via dei Chiavari, noteworthyfor its fine portal with a balcony. Our finalhalt along this fascinating promenade is thechurch of San Carlo ai Cantinari, the realmasterpiece of the area, standing very closeto where the street meets the Via Arenula.Its origin dates from the end of the Sixteenthcentury, when the Community of the Bar-banites (the Congregation of Regular Clericsfounded in Milan by Sant’Antonio Maria Za-ccaria) was established in Rome in the churchof San Biagio de Anulo, situated between thepresent-day Vicolo dei Chiodaroli and the Viadei Monti della Farina. The Clerics very soonstarted acquiring the surrounding land wherethe “catinari” (bowl- or dish-makers) pliedtheir trade, and they were eventually al-lowed to build a big new church entitled toSan Carlo Borromeo, a great estimator of theBarnabite Order, in the area adjacent to theancient Theatre of Pompey. Work on it com-menced in the early part of the Seventeenthcentury, on the project of the architect RosatoRosati, and, in alternating phases, continueduntil the middle of the century. The finefaçade constructed by Giovan Battista Soriadates from 1638: the “ovatus” above the cen-tral door once contained the painting by Gui-do Reni portraying St. Charles Borromeo atprayer, which can now be seen behind thechurch choir. But the most admired featureis the ribbed dome resting on a lofty tam-bour and illuminated by means of twelve“finestrelle” windows, a bold, innovativestructure in the tradition of Roman churcharchitecture. The interior, too, appears to usas a veritable anthology of painting from theSeventeenth to the Nineteenth century, withoutstanding works by artists of the calibre ofGiovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino (whoexecuted the beautiful frescoes of the dome).

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This is the street that leads from the Viadegli Uffici del Vicario (which used to

house the notarial offices of the lawcourt)to the Piazza di San Lorenzo in Lucina, in thevery heart of an area through which runs theboundary between the districts of CampoMarzio and of Colonna. The street was ho-wever also known as the Via di Santa Mariain Campo Marzio, after the monastic com-plex of the Syro-Antiochean rite which standsin the nearby Piazza di Campo Marzio. Thestreet in fact runs through a short, pictu-resque stretch of the ancient Campus Mar-tius (Field of Mars), identified as the broadflat area used for military activities and con-taining the shrine dedicated to Mars, the godof war. Within a short distance, in both spa-ce and time, some of the most eminent mo-numental complexes of antiquity were con-structed, many of them still surrounding thearea traversed by the present-day Via di Cam-po Marzio, such as the Pantheon (in the neigh-bouring Piazza della Rotonda) and the Ha-drianeum (in Piazza di Pietra). In the Midd-le Ages, a decisive episode for the urbani-zation of the area was the construction ofthe complex of Santa Maria della Concezio-ne in Campo Marzio, probably already in 806around the church of the same name, whichhad in its turn been granted around the mid-Ninth century to a group of Basilian monksby Pope Zacharias. The former monastery(today pertaining to the Chamber of Depu-ties) includes also the church of San Grego-rio Nazanzieno, which started as a simpleoratory on 795 and whose bell tower was ad-ded in the Twelfth century. The church ofSanta Maria in Campo Marzio was insteadbuilt on its present site in 1563, to the de-sign of Giacomo Della Porta, after whom ca-me first Carlo Maderno and then FrancescoPaparelli; finally it took on its baroque formsbetween 1668 and 1685 by the hand of Gio-vanni Antonio De Rossi. The two churcheswere incorporated into the same monasterycomplex in 1563. Around this area alreadyin the Twelfth century there was a fairly den-

se building fabric, linked above all to themonastery’s numerous possessions and dis-tributed over the surrounding area. Startingin the Renaissance period, some importantpatrician families took up their residence he-re, promoting the construction of noble sta-tely houses. In the Via del Campo Marzio li-ved the third best-known aristocratic familyof the district, the Conti’s. During the sub-sequent centuries the process culminatedwith the construction of certain eminent buil-dings, such as Palazzo Chigi and, above all,Palazzo Montecitorio, in the two piazzas withthose names. At the same time works werecarried out on the surrounding roads andsquares, in the wake of the grandiose urbanplanning operations which during the firsthalf of the Sixteenth century led to the de-finition of the “Tridente” (the three roadsstarting from Piazza del Popolo: the Via delCorso, the Via del Babuina and the Via Ri-petta). Halfway through the Seventeenthcentury, at the behest of Pope Alexander VII(of the Chigi family) works were carried outon the street running from San Lorenzo inLucina to Campo Marzio. A reminder of the-se works is the coat-of-arms of the pope’sfamily, with three hills in relief, at the cor-ner with the Via di Campo Marzio (on the an-gle iron of the former Caracciolini convent).The present aspect of the area dates fromthe measures carried out after the Unifica-tion of Italy, including the opening of Piaz-za del Parlamento, whose most importantedifices are the Parliament building and theBank of Santo Spirito.The itinerary along the Via di Campo Marzio,once well known for its famous haberdash-ery stores and emporiums selling knittedgoods, starts in the Via degli Uffici del Vic-ario, at the Eighteenth-century Palazzo Or-landi, at no. 1, with a delightful sacred aed-icula (niche) at the corner, one of the manytypical Roman “madonnelle” supposed toprotect the district and the street. This pic-turesque expression of popular devotion isin this case represented by the painted ter-

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racotta statue portraying the Virgin with thesnake underfoot, enclosed in an equally re-fined oval stucco frame, surrounded by aflight of angels and surmounted by a canopy.Probably from the beginning of the Eigh-teenth century, the niche is a praiseworthyexample of rococo taste, while the statue isthe work of an unknown Nineteenth-centu-ry sculptor. At no. 74 is the printing worksof the Chamber of Deputies, on the spotwhere the Seventeenth-century Convent ofthe Mission Fathers used to stand. The Con-gregation of the Mission (popularly called theLazarists), founded in Paris by St. Vincenzode Paul, in 1659 purchased the building be-longing to Cardinal Toschi (alongside Mon-tecitorio) with the intention of setting up hisHouse there. In the vast area between thepresent-day Via della Missione, Via degli Uf-fici del Vicario and Via di Campo Marzio,thanks to the munificence of the DuchessD’Anguillon Maria Maddalena De Vignarod agreat complex was built, including the littlechurch of the SS. Trinità (adjacent to theHouse) and a garden. In the middle of theEighteenth century, both the church and theHouse were rebuilt (the church, designed byBernardo Della Torre, has now been decon-secrated), and were eventually expropriat-ed between 1876 and 1914 (the original en-trance to the House, framed by a Fifteenth-century portal with subsequent additions, isat no. 17, Via degli Uffici del Vicario, whilethat to the church is at no. 1, Via della Mis-sione). During the construction of the Mis-sion complex, the remains of the Ustrina ofthe Antonines, that is, the places where themembers of the imperial family were cre-mated, came to light. Long before, in thesame area stood the red granite monolithiccolumn, erected in 105-106 AD in honour ofAntoninus Pius; extracted in 1705, it was dis-mantled at the time of Pius VI and used forreassembling obelisks and other ancient arte-facts. The only part of it preserved is thebeautiful base of precious Italic marble,which, after having been for a certain peri-od in Piazza Montecitorio, where it wasplaced by Pope Benedict XIV after the

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Orestoration works carried out by FerdinandoFuga, was finally reassembled in the CorazzeCourtyard in the Vatican. Passing by a Six-teenth-century house, nn. 72-73, with itsfront displaying artistic string-courses, wereach one of the most important buildingsin the whole street: Palazzo Marescotti, no.69, which originally gave its name to onestretch of the present Via di Campo Marzio.This is most likely the palace of the Por-tuguese Ambassador mentioned in the Eigh-teenth-century plans of Rome, in which thenoble family present in Rome ever since theFifteenth century, and related to the pow-erful Orsini, Farnese and Ruspoli families,took up residence in the early part of theEighteenth century. In the centre of thefaçade there is a majestic Seventeenth-cen-tury portal in which appears the coat of armsof the Marescotti family, representing a ram-pant panther above which there is a crownedeagle. Alongside was the destroyed PalazzoRondinini, built in the Sixteenth century andabandoned when the family moved to thenearby house on the Corso. At the end ofLargo dell’Impresa (so called because herelived the Empress del Lotto) is the House ofthe Augustinians of Santa Maria del Popo-lo, no. 3, rebuilt in 1748. On the wall ex-tending towards the Via in Lucina is theplaque commemorating the discovery of theObelisk of Psammeticus II, ordered by Au-gustus to be brought from Heliopolis and setup as the gnomon of a gigantic sun-dial inCampus Martius. Dug up in 1587 by Domeni-co Fontana, it was fully recovered in 1789during the pontificate of Pius VI and restoredwith the fragments of the column of Anton-inus Pius, after which it was finally erectedin the Piazza di Montecitorio by the archi-tect Giovanni Antinori. Beneath the founda-tions of the Eighteenth-century house atno. 48 in the Via di Campo Marzio (with afine stucco decoration on the façade), un-der the courtyard, traces were found of thepaving bearing inscriptions in Greek, inbronze characters, relating to the Sun Clockof Augustus, evocatively referred to the signsof the Zodiac and to the constellation of

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Venus. The next building is the Palazzo Mag-nani, no. 46, formerly housing the Rome Am-ateur Dramatic Academy presided over bythe Marchese Giuliano Caprinica Del Grillo.In front of this there is a harmonious Eigh-teenth-century façade with stucco panels,made all the more impressive by its elegantlyframed windows and the central entrancewith an arched cornice, decorated with artis-tic corbels. Forming an opening in the cen-tral part of the Via di Campo Marzio is thetrapezoidal shaped Piazza del Parlamento,skirted by the Parliament building and theBanco di Santo Spirito. The Parliament build-ing was erected between 1903 and 1927 byErnesto Basile, an architect from Palermo,who joined the new wing onto the rear partof the Montecitorio building. The impressivelooking quadrangular complex incorporatedthe Camotto Hall, which in its turn had beenconstructed at the end of the Nineteenth

century in the courtyard of the ancient Palaz-zo della Curia Innocenziana (that is, the Mon-tecitorio building, which has since 1871housed the Chamber of Deputies). Basile pro-duced a lively façade with some Art-nouveauaspects, inspired by the “monumentalizing”trend that marked Roman architecture in theyears witnessing the preparations for thegreat Exposition of 1911 (to celebrate thefiftieth anniversary of the proclamation ofRome as Capital of Italy). Standing out in thefront are some allegoric sculptural groupsalluding to the Reawakening and Triumph ofthe Italian People, by Domenico Trentacoste;the new parliamentary chamber, based onthe classical models of Roman theatres, wascovered by radial glass panels of very defi-nitely Art-nouveau fashion, and decoratedinternally by Giulio Aristide Sartorio, the au-thor of the long frieze depicting the Alle-gories of Italian Civilization and History. Thebuilding opposite (no. 18), formerly the headoffice of the Bank of Italy, was constructedin imitation classical style between 1918 and1923 by Marcello Piacentini (one of the lead-ing figures of Roman architecture during theperiod of the Governorate), following thedemolition of the pre-existing building unitsincluding the palaces of the Chigi family andof the Marquis of Palombara. Finally the walkends at the corner block between the Via diCampo Marzio and the Piazza di San Loren-zo in Lucina, occupied by the large buildingonce housing the convent of the Regular Mi-nor Clerics of San Francesco Caracciolo(known as “Caracciolini”), belonging to theorder founded in Naples in 1588 and offici-ating in the adjacent church of San Lorenzoin Lucina, entrusted to them in 1606 by PopePaul V. The present building, now a Cara-binieri Barracks, was reconstructed and con-verted into a convent between 1663 and 1665by the architect Carlo Rainaldi, who workedon the pre-existing Sixteenth-century nu-cleus of the palace and of the garden of theAcquaviva family, while the wing behind it,overlooking Parliament Square, was con-structed between 1690 and 1700 by Fran-cesco Carlo Bizzaccheri.

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This is the street that connects the Piaz-za della Minerva with the Largo di Torre

Argentina, running through the heart of thePigna district. The name of the area derivesfrom the enormous bronze pine-cone in an-cient times embellishing a fountain in theBaths of Agrippa (then removed to the co-urtyard of the Belvedere in the Vatican), andcopied since then in other decorative ele-ments; there is a pine-cone, for example, onthe small district fountain in the Piazza SanMarco. Another sort of ornament typical ofthe district is the application of ancient findsand other elements of small size, such as co-ats of arms, badges, niches, memorial ta-blets, plaques and lintels on the walls of thebuildings. This part of the district crossed bythe Via dei Cestari has retained the patterndetermined during the course of the Sixteenthand Seventeenth century, when the align-ments of the Via dei Cestari and of many sur-rounding roads were straightened. Before theurban planning works carried out followingthe proclamation of Rome as the country’scapital in 1870 and the subsequent openingof Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the Via exten-ded down to via dell’Arco della Ciambella,opened in its turn over the remains of therotunda or circular hall of the Baths of Agrip-pa, the most ancient ones in Rome, stret-ching over the area now including the Via deiCestari, Torre Argentina and the Pantheon.Alongside the ancient Baths was the StagnumAgrippae, a large basin supplied by the Ver-gine Aqueduct. All that remain today of theRoman construction are some majestic brick-work elements incorporated in the wings ofthe Via dell’Arco della Ciambella (the streetopened in 1621 by Pope Gregory XV, breakingup the rotunda of the Baths), which runs atright angles from the Via dei Cestari. Thisstreet owes its name to the basket makersand sellers who had their workshops and sto-res here. The adjacent Vicolo delle Cestepreviously called vicolo dei Porcari by the na-me of the family owner of the insula that in-cludes via and piazza della Pigna, via dei Ce-

stari and vicolo delle Ceste, had workshopsengaged in the same trade; it took its pre-sent name in 1871 due to a process of “Tu-scanizing” the Roman vernacular, as decidedby the Piemontese Placenames Commissionafter the Unification of Italy. Of the ancientPalazzo dei Porcari only a Fifteenth-centuryportal and a few elements in the courtyardof a building in the road still remain. The Viadei Cestari was also known as the Via del-l’Arco dei Leni, due to the presence of an ar-chitraved passage pertaining to the Baths ofAgrippa below a tower forming part of thegroup of houses belonging to the Leni family,demolished in 1577 to provide more room.Together with the Via di San Nicola de’ Ce-sarini, the Via dei Cestari formed the ancientstreet of the “Calcarari” (which linked Piaz-za Mattei with Piazza della Minerva), the na-me including the whole area between Piaz-za dell’Olmo and Santa Lucia dei Ginnasi, asfar as the church of the Sacre Stimmate diSan Francesco. The church, at the end of theVia dei Cestari near Largo Argentina, was for-merly dedicated to the Forty Holy Martyrs(SS. Quaranta Martiri) and was also known asthe church of the “Calcarari” (lime makers),in relation to the lime kilns active in the area,extracting lime from the ancient marble ma-terials. The Via dei Cestari starts at the har-monious little Piazza della Minerva, in themidst of which stands the well-known littleelephant designed by Bernini, whose inspi-ration was the Poliphilo written by France-sco Colonna in 1499, and sculpted by ErcoleFerrata in 1667- On the elephant’s back standsone of Rome’s thirteen obelisks. The street,which is picturesque and shady, is boundedon both sides by the wings of some of themost important aristocratic palaces of thecity. It runs in fact through an eminent ur-ban area, where some illustrious Roman fa-milies chose to live, attracted by the presti-gious religious houses of the Dominicans (inthe Minerva convent) and of the Jesuits (re-sponsible for the grandiose Collegio Romanoand by the Church of Sant’Ignazio), and by

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the lofty, symbolic presence of the Pantheon.The start of the road is marked by the rightside of Palazzo Fonseca (occupied by theprestigious Hotel Minerva), and along its wayit is bridged by an elegant series of arches.The monumental building dates from theearly part of the Seventeenth century, erec-ted by the noble family of Portuguese origin,and it incorporated the pre-existing buildingsconnected with the properties of the Porca-ri family. Purchased in 1841 by the Frenchentrepreneur Joseph Sauve, it was radicallyrestructured under Enrico Calderari (a mu-nicipal architect highly esteemed by Giu-seppe Valadier), who joined the various partsinto a unitary complex centred on the Se-venteenth-century block of the noble pala-ce and the splendid inner courtyard trans-formed into a “winter garden”. The modern,efficient structure was right away exclusivelyused as a hotel, which it indeed still is. Thetwo main entrances, on Piazza della Minerva(no. 69), are characterized by their canoni-cal composition formed by the ashlar portaland by the balcony above resting on pillars,in keeping with the typically Sixteenth-cen-tury formula derived from the noble Romanpalaces: the most famous examples are themajestic entrance to the Palazzo Farnese andthe “Carbognano portal” (the access to Pa-lazzo Sciarra Colonna al Corso, regarded asone of the marvels of Rome). On the otherside of the street is one side of the large buil-ding housing the French Seminary: the Pont.Seminarium Gallicum in 1856 acquired the

convent adjoining the church of Santa Chia-ra, the ancient monastery of Casa Pia (thatis, entitled to Pope Pius IV), born after Char-les Borromeo in 1562 assigned to the Franci-scan nuns a number of buildings in the areaof the ancient Baths of Agrippa, to establisha convent there. After promoting the resto-ration of the church, in 1883 the French Se-minary entrusted the remaking of the con-vent to Luca Carimini (who was also the ar-chitect of the façade of Santa Chiara), whofirst set to work arranging the inner court-yard and then, in 1885, was responsible forthe design of the global restructuring of thewhole block. The convent building is in eclec-tic Renaissance forms, with three storeys plusa recent addition. Going past the Hotel Mi-nerva, separated from the convent by Vico-lo delle Ceste, we come to the block contai-ning the Fifteenth-century houses of thePorcari family, fronting onto Via della Pignano. 19, contained in a Nineteenth-centurybuilding complex. What remains of the origi-nal works is the fine marble portal walled inat no. 25, Vicolo delle Ceste, over which isa stone plaque in memory of Stefano Porca-ri, placed at the end of the Nineteenth cen-tury in place of a pre-existing bust of Cato,the famous ancestor of the family. Behind thecomplex stands one of the most significantchurches in the district, at the end of the Vi-colo delle Ceste: the church of San Giovan-ni della Pigna, recorded from as long ago asthe Tenth century as St. Ioannis in Pinea, sub-ordinate to the Monastery of San Silvestro inCapite. In 1584 it was granted to the Arch-confraternity of the Pietà dei Carcerati (foun-ded a few years earlier by edict of Pope Gre-gory XIII), which in 1624 entrusted its recon-struction to the architect Angelo Torroni. Itwas subsequently restored in the Eighteenthcentury, the interior being rearranged withjust a single nave, and then again in 1837 byVirginio Vespignani. On the side of the churchtowards the Vicolo della Minerva there is aaedicula or niche in a refined marble frame,in which we see the pine-cone, the symbolof the district. Outstanding in the interior isa fresco by an anonymous artist between the

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Seventeenth and Eighteenth century, depic-ting the Madonna and Child between SaintsPeter and Paul. Another splendid aedicula(niche), visible from the Via dei Cestari, isthe one reassembled in monumental form inthe Via dell’Arco della Ciambella, nn. 9-10,against the pier of a Roman arch in the Baths.With its elaborate stucco frame, this containsthe Late Nineteenth-century painting of theMadonna del Rosario, by Pietro Campofiori-to. We next encounter the majestic PalazzoMaffei Marescotti, no. 21, an admirable workby Giacomo della Porta. The grandiose buil-ding, with its main front facing the Via dellaPigna, no. 13 A, was built starting in 1580 atthe commission of Cardinal Marcantonio Maf-fei, who had the pre-existing family housesdemolished to make room for the palazzo. The death of the cardinal led to the sus-pension of the construction works, and then,at the end of the century, the palazzo passedinto the ownership of Camilla Peretti (sisterof the then Pope Sixtus V), who thus movedinto one of the most representative build-ings of Giacomo Della Porta’s work. The har-mony of its composition characterizes bothits main façade and its front looking towardsthe Via dei Cestari. Each subsequent changeof ownership brought with it architecturalchanges, and of these particular significance(especially in the courtyard) attached tothose made in the mid-Eighteenth centuryby Ferdinando Fuga, architect of the Apos-tolic Palaces. The portal towards the Via deiCestari is framed by pilasters with compos-ite capitals, according to a composition de-vised in the Nineteenth century, probably byAndrea Sarti, who was responsible for com-pleting this part of the building. Its owner-ship passed to the Holy See, and today ithouses the Catholic Action offices. Facing itis the sober, elegant architecture of thePalazzo Muti Sacchetti, subsequently Sa-vorelli Papazzurri and Pesci, no. 34, builtin the mid-Nineteenth century by VirginioVespignani on the structures of the Seven-teenth-century building that had belongedto Cardinal Ottavio Paravicini. Architecturallyadjacent to this stands the Palazzo Strozzi

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Besso, Largo delle Stimmate no. 26, withits principal front over the Largo di TorreArgentina no. 11. Its original structure datesfrom the Sixteenth century, when it was firstthe residence of the Rustici family and thenof the Olgiati’s. It was later restructured byCarlo Maderno, who was responsible for thelovely marble portal facing the church of theStimmate, a survival from the Late Nine-teenth-century rebuilding works. In the mid-Seventeenth century it passed into the handsof the Strozzi family, who retained owner-ship of it until 1907, when it was sold to Mar-co Besso: it still houses the Foundation ofthat name, set up to preserve and add to thefamily’s well-stocked library. In 1882, in thereign of Umberto I, the building was expro-priated to make room for the opening of thebroad new street, the Corso Vittorio Ema-nuele, which led to the destruction of thesolemn inner courtyard, at the same timecompromising most of the building’s originalstructure. Our promenade along the Via deiCestari ends at the church dedicated to theSacre Stimmate di San Francesco, whichstands facing the side of Palazzo Besso. Builtover the remains of the earlier church ded-icated to the SS. Quaranta Martiri di Senaste,it was originally called the church of Cal-carario and then, from the XVI century on,of the SS. Quaranta de Lenis. It was given itslast name in 1597, when it was granted tothe Confraternity of the Holy Stigmata. Itwas rebuilt in its present form between 1714and 1721 at the design of Giovanni BattistaContini, who conferred on the interior itsharmonious setting derived from Borromini,with its barrel-vaulted roof (the nave wasdecorated in the early Nineteenth centuryby Giuseppe Valadier). The façade-porticowas designed by Antonio Canevari who tookas his model the Cortonesque front of thechurch of Santa Maria in Via, on which wascopied the Syrian arch tympanum contain-ing the spectacular scene of the Stigmata ofSt. Francis. The broken-line cornice is em-bellished with the Petrachia Monument, theNineteenth-century work of the Bolognesesculptor Adamo Tadolini.

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The first, that dues its toponym to basinsand wood crockery makers who had their

own workshops in the area, was outlined onthe cross, of Republican age, linking the pre-sent Largo Arenula to the Capitol. Until 1539carpenters belonged to the Masons Univer-sity. But, that year, thirty craftsmen who dis-agreed with other members, founded an in-dependent Archconfraternity entitled to S.Joseph. Later it settled in the church of S.Peter at the Mamertine Prison at Capitol slo-pes. Starting from then it was named Giu-seppe dei Falegnami, later gathering in Uni-versitas carpentariorum, fabrorum et li-gnariorum. Carpenters also made the so-cal-led “arks” that were big wood chests. Fromthis, for some time, the street was calledVia degli Arcari. The archconfraternity con-sisted of coopers, cymbalists, lute-makers,cabinet-makers, moulders, carvers, wooddealers, box-makers, chair-makers, sawyers,heel-makers, tub-makers, throwers, clog-makers and basin-makers. To these last isdue the name of the nearby church of SanCarlo. In fact, Via dei Falegnami, that nowlinks via Arenula to Piazza Mattei, before de-molitions after the unification started fromthe Church of Barnabites, under the toponymof Via dei Catinari and was the continuationof the old via Peregrinorum, the street thatwas crossed by pilgrims to St. Peter. Throughvia dei Funari (the street of ropes twisterswho moved here after leaving their previoussettlement in via of Tor de Specchi, previouslyknown as via of “Merangolo” or of the “Tor-re del Merangolo”), the guiding of via dei Fa-legnami joins to via dei Delfini. The toponymof this last comes from a noble family whobuilt her nobiliary palace on it. Both streetsare an important passing inside Sant’Ange-lo quarter and the area once occupied by theJewish ghetto. In fact, this area was boun-ded by the walls made built by the Pope PaulIV on 1555, where Roman Jewish, who mo-ved from Trastevere, were obliged to livesince XIII century. The path marked by viadei Falegnami, via dei Funari and dei Delfi-

ni is placed on part of the ground where rou-se Castrum Aureum, the ancient Circo Fla-minio that was built up by C. Flaminius Ne-pos (the same who is due via Flaminia) on221 b.C. It is the passing of an area that wascharacterized by the reusing of ancient ma-terial coming from surrounding archaeologi-cal areas since the Middle Age. Many of themost prestigious Roman families choose tobuild their palaces in this place. They weregreatly fascinated by monumental archaeo-logical Circus, Cripta di Balbo, and Porticod’Ottavia ruins and by the majestic Teatrodi Marcello. Crocial point of the path is thesmall and elegant square dedicated to Mat-tei noble family, that has in the middle oneof the most beautiful Roman fountains: knowas “turtles fountain”. It was made in 1581on a project by the architect Giacomo del-la Porta. It was included among the 18 ba-sins planned in 1570 to providing water inCampo Marzio, after the restoration of theAcquedotto Vergine (Virgin Aqueduct) laun-ched by the Pope Gregorio XIII. The fountainof Piazza Mattei is different from other ba-sins made by Della Porta for a prevailingsculptural part, attended by Taddeo Landi-ni, animated by the dance of wonderful ephe-bes and dolphins at the basis. In the middleof following century the fountain was resto-red and other turtles were added to it. Sin-ce then turtles are the distinctive elementof the fountain and of the same square (theywere replaced with copies, the originals,maybe by Bernini, are preserved in the Mu-sei Capitolini).The fountain of Piazza Giudea was also in-cluded into the same programme. It was al-so planned by Della Porta, placed in presentplace of the Piazza delle Cinque Scole, af-ter ninetheenth-century works of the areaurban framework.

Crossing the guiding that starts from via deiFalegnami and ends in Piazza Margana, leadsto stop to the beginning of the path (nearvia Arenula) on an emblematic Church of the

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area: Santa Maria in Publicolis (whose mainfaçade turn to Piazza Costaguti). It doesn’texist anything else of the original temple. Infact, on the original structure it was builtthe seventheenth-century church by the ar-chitect Giovan Antonio De Rossi and taskmas-ter builder Alessio De Rossi, on commissionof monsignor Marcello Santacroce. Churchbuilding ended on 1645. It was designed asa kind of gentilitial chapel of Santacrocefamily, who had their palace in a facing po-sition. Besides the railing put in the first ofthe Twentieth century, rises the nice façadedecorated by a fresco representing the Vir-gin Assumption, dominated by a curved-gablesupported by pelicans (symbol of San-tacroce’s, also represented in interior dec-oration). Later there is the sixtheenth-cen-tury bulk, even if it was modified on Sette-cento, of Palace Boccapaduli, nn. 10-14.Over one of the first buildings of the street,at nn. 17-18, there is a typical roman sa-cred aedicule, representing in this case theMadonna dell’Orto, eightheenth-centurywork of an anonymous painter. At no. 10 ofPiazza Mattei there is Palace Costagutiplaced in one of the corners of the charac-teristic “turtles” square. It was built in themiddle of Cinquecento by Costanzo Patrizi,in the next Century it passed to Costaguti,a rich bankers family from Genova who cameto Rome on 1585 and fostered the enlarge-ment by Carlo Lombardi. During the worksthe church of San Leonardo de platea judeiwas destroyed. The halls at first floor keepimportant frescos that were made when thepalace belonged to Patrizi. They are attrib-utable to artists like Federico and TaddeoZuccari, Lanfranco, Agostino Tassi and Cav-alier d’Arpino. The same square is urbanis-tically defined by the facing Sixtheenth-century palace of Giacomo Mattei, nn. 17-19, that belonged to the noble family whoowned the all block between via dei Funari,delle Botteghe Oscure, Caetani and Pagan-ica in XVI Century. It is the named insula Mat-tei that is placed where once rouse Teatrodi Balbo. The palace, involving an internalporticoed court, was restored by Nanni di

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NIBaccio Pigio in the middle of the century. Inthe prominent structure was also involvedthe famous Palace Mattei di Giove, entranceat 32 of Via Caetani. Mattei family, who al-so were dukes of Giove, made build fivebuildings. Among them it rises the one fac-ing via Caetani that was restored between1598 and 1618 by Carlo Maderno. The ele-gant façades of the building are enrichedwith Mattei and Gonzaga (the family of theduke of Giove Asdrubale Mattei wife) fami-lies crests. Later the prestigious palacepassed to Antici Mattei who were relativesof Giacomo Leopardi. The great poet livedon the third floor of the palace in 1822. Dif-ferent blocks are around the wonderful in-ner court, whose decorative apparatus wasstudied by the same Maderno at the begin-ning of Seicento. To smooth spaces inter-change classical sarcophagus fronts, funer-ary relieves, architectonic elements tookfrom surrounding archaeological area, bustsincluded in shapely niches decorated withbaroque stuccoes. Nine statues represent-ing men are placed on columns, that wereshaped into emperors in Sixtheenth centu-ry, come from the wonderful villa owned byMattei on the Palatino. In the vaults of thepalace inner halls there is a real anthologyof seventheent-century painting, made byartists like Lanfranco, Domenichino andFrancesco Albani. It was bought by the Statein 1938, today the palace hosts the seat ofthe Centre of American Studies, the ItalianHistorical Institute for Modern and Contem-poraneous Age and the State Discoteca.

The passing from via dei Funari to via deiDelfini is marked by the bulk of palazzo Pa-trizi a Santa Caterina, at no. 12. It was builtat the end of Cinquecento where it rouse theTower of Merangolo (firstly the same via deiFunari was called via del Merangolo), thatwas in part involved in the new building. Itwas bought by the State and today is the seatof Sovrintendenza for Lazio Environmentaland Architectonic Heritages. The facingchurch of Santa Caterina dei Funari is ded-icated to ropes twisters. In the Middle Age

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there was a three naves basilica named San-ta Maria de donna Rosa in Castro Aureowhere now there is the present temple. Itwas restored at one nave on IX century, itwas dedicated to Santa Caterina d’Alessan-dria and named Sancta Catharina donneRosae or Sancta Catharina in castro aureo,later simplified in Santa Caterina della Rosaor Santa Caterina dei Funari. The curch, re-al neglected masterpiece of late Roman man-nerism, was destroyed in the second middleof Cinquecento an completely reconstruct-ed together with the annexed monastery oncommission of the cardinal Federico Cesi

(who was the patron of Santa Caterina Broth-erhood). The unique Renaissance façade,made by Guidetto Guidetti, rises on a trian-gular widening once characterized with Crip-ta di Balbo on its meridional part, a build-ing annexed to the Portico di Filippo and thecorner of Portico d’Ottavia. Inside, that hasshape of a simple room barrel vault, thereare the Ruiz chapel, planned by Vignola, fres-cos by Annibale Carracci, pillars decoratedby Federico Zuccari and paintings by Raf-faellino da Reggio (who was in Rome in thatperiod following Raffaello). The main factoyof via dei Delfini is placed in the omoni-mous building, no. 16, built by Mario Delfi-ni at the beginning of XVI century on pre-ex-isting buildings belonging to his own familyand to Frangipane. The loggia at first floor,decorated with wonderful sixtheenth-cen-tury grotesques, and the garden behind thepalace, where Delfini family collected a pres-tigious collection of ancient art, are pecu-liar elements. At no. 21, near the wall clos-ing the access to vicolo dei Polacchi, thereis another typical Roman aedicola : theninetheenth-century painting representingthe Madonna del Rosario, inscribed in a con-temporary wood frame. The street endsopening into one of the most suggestive ur-ban spaces of the town, Piazza Margana,dominated by the Seventheeth-centurybuilding Maccarani Odescalchi, no. 19, andthe tower of Margani, no. 40. This last wasbuilt on XIV century. It is included in the bigcomplex of houses that Giovanni Margani(who belonged to the noble baronial familyof the bordering quarter Campitelli, gravedin the prestigious basilica of Ara Coeli) boughtby Mellini on 1305. In the same block of thetower there is the omonimous Palazzo Mar-gani, entrance in via dell’Aracoeli nn. 11-13. It is very interesting the inclusion in tow-er front of a column with a Ionic capital andstone pateras (the so called “kite”), and theancient architectonical marble elementsshaping the framing of two portals. It is asample of orderly and “proud” scrap mate-rial reusing in new buildings and in streetfurniture elements.

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I t is one of the most elegant and symbolicstreet of the district called Regola. Accor-

ding to a dedication in its turn coming fromthe Madonna of Monserrat Catalan sanctuary,it is linked in its place and toponym to thechurch Santa Maria di Monserrato. In fact,one of the most important events of the streetstory is related to complex foundation thatwas born from an idea of Jacoba Fernandes,a Catalan woman who on 1354 bought a litt-le house in the district for hosting an hospi-tal called San Nicola dei Catalani. It was builtat the end of the same century. On 1495, af-ter the foundation of the Spanish Confrater-nity, the hospital joined to another aid Ca-talan institute, and in the Chapel of San Ni-colò settled the newborn Santa Maria di Mon-serrato Confraternity.

Thanks to the legacy of the king FerdinandoII and to the purchase of building sites neigh-bouring to the old hospice, some years laterit started the building of the homonymouschurch and it followed the building of a newhospital in Via di Monserrato. The complexwas characterized by the most common trendof the end of Quattrocento that took accu-rate care to pilgrims service, mainly to Spa-nish and German, for the strong relation withthe Spanish world of the Pope Alessandro VIwho was born in Jativa (Valencia). The Jubi-lee of 1500 and the election of a foreign Po-pe, together with the America discovery, ma-de the church able to enlarge its apostolicborders. The complex of Monserrato becameperfectly integrated in this feel of renewal.Before that period the street was called “Viadella Chiavica a Corte Savella”, in relationwith the Chiavica of Santa Lucia (or Chiavi-ca di Ponte). There it converged via del Pel-legrino, dei Banchi Vecchi and the new via diMonserrato. The ancient sewer, the most important inRome, marked the symbolic border with threedistricts: Ponte, Parione and Regola. Some-times the street simply appeared as “via diCorte Savella”, from the building of thehomonymous family where there were theCourt and the Prisons of the Roman CuriaMarshal. Via di Monserrato cross an area thatwas always linked to commerce and that wasconsidered the real commercial and craftcore of the town. This principal vocationmade it the favourite place of many craftgilds and confraternities that settled theirseat there. Moreover, within this complexand variegated structure settled importantpatrician families, many of them had theirprestigious residence in via di Monserrato.In fact the street is placed in a crucial pointof the town and respects to the axes thatlinked the great administrative and religiouscentres, between the Vatican and the an-cient Campo Marzio. It mainly begins fromone of the most important historical squaresof the town, linked to the power of Farnese

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family. When he ascended the papal throneunder the name of Paolo III (1534-1549), car-dinal Alessandro Farnese imprinted his in-delible mark to this part of the town, erect-ing a monumental factory that became a re-al architectonic landmark: the “dado Far-nese”, that is considered one of the Romebeauties.The urban policy of Paul III, the last impor-tant Pope of Renaissance, aimed to the up-grading of papal power through the total re-founding of the town, whose wonderful ex-pression was the opening of big straightstretches put on huge architectonic groundslike via dei Baullarri and the façade of Palaz-zo Farnese. This was the decisive act in thedefinition of the area, as, with it, Pope in-fluence fit in one of the biggest commercialcentre of the town that became a real “far-nesina small town”.At the entrance with via del Pellegrino, thepath crossing via di Monserrato is marked byPietro Paolo “della Zecca” house of the lateQuattrocento, no. 2. He was Paul II super-visor, on his house there are still signs ofCinquecento paintings by artists like Polidoroda Caravaggio and Maturino da Firenze. Thesewere nice samples of the late QuattrocentoRome widespread trend of decorating withgraffiti and paintings the front of aristocraticbuildings, thus making the town a properopen-air museum. Following, nn. 154-152,there are Palazzo Bossi, built at the end ofXVI century, and Palazzo degli Incoronati dePlanca, built at the end of Quattrocento bythe aristocratic Spanish family. Then, yousee Palazzo d’Aste, no. 149, built in thesecond half of Seicento on the area firstlyoccupied by Orsini palace. The square thatoverlooks the building took originally thename of the aristocratic family. The smallwidening is its current toponym to PalazzoRicci, built at the end of XV century forCalcagni family. On 1525 its façade was paint-ed by Polidoro and Maturino, who were verybusy in Rome in this kind of works. Later itwas enlarged by unifying adjacent houses,at the end it passed to Ricci family on 1576.On Ottocento they commissioned the restora-

tion to Luigi Fontana, who added ex novopainted decoration outside, in relation withthe last two floors. In front of the squarethere is Palazzo Podocotari, at no. 20, builton XV century for the bishop of Nicosia thenpassed to Orsini family. Crossed throughPalazzo Ricci there is the small and oldchurch of San Giovanni in Ayno (today it isdesecrate) existing since 1186. On the oth-er side of the road there is the palace builtby Carlo Maderno for the cardinal Rocci, no.25. Then, there is Palazzo Capponi, no. 34,that was built on Cinquecento and deeplyreworked by Virginio Vespignani on Otto-cento. From here one of the most meaning-ful and typical steps of the road: the Span-ish church devoted to Santa Maria di Mon-serrato. The originary project, worked outby Antonio Sangallo il Giovane since 1518 (hewas the architect of Farnese family and heplanned the close stately building for themthat was conceived like a fortress changedinto a royal palace) faced the main body ofthe building with the sacristy annexed, lat-er enlarged when the close church of San-t’Andrea Nazareth was desacrated. The build-ing of the new hospital was made by Bernardi-no Valperga on 1577. He also continuedchurch works according to Sangallo project.On 1582 was worked out the façade, byFrancesco da Volterra (it was finished by Sal-vatore Rebecchini on 1929). At the end ofthe century, when Giovanni Dosio was ableto use the all space of the church of San-t’Andrea, he added lateral chapels to theone nave plant. The internal ninetheenthdecoration, worked by Giuseppe Camporese,is interrupted by huge seventheenth paint-ings, among them paintings by Annibale Car-racci in the first chapel on the right side. Inthe conference room of the close SpanishCollege there is Cardinal Montoya tomb,worked out by Bernini on 1621. After anotherpiece of road, that it is also between archi-tectonic precious buildings, there is the Eng-lish College palace, no. 43, in the sameblock of the church of San Tommaso di Can-terbury. College seventheenth façade de-fines the palace where there was the seat

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of Corte Savella, the fivetheenth tribunalwith prison annex, inside the factory of viadi Monserrato within the competence o Savel-li family. After the building of the New Pris-ons in via Giulia asked by Innocenzo X, whenthe block was eliminated, the palace wasbought by the English College that made itbuild again according to new needs. On Tre-cento the adjacent church, known since XIIcentury as SS. Trinità degli Scozzesi, had anhospice for English pilgrims. It was annexedto it with a new dedication. During the sev-entheenth century the temple was deeplyrestored to coincide with the works in theCollege. It was totally rebuilt on theninetheenth century. On the other side ofthe road there is a small square where havetheir seat the last two churches of via diMonserrato: Santa Caterina della Rota andSan Girolamo della Carità. The first one,called Santa Mariae in Catenariis in XI cen-tury, was devoted to Santa Caterina d’A-lessandria, called in Cathenieri, on the six-theenth century, in the same period whenOttavio Mascherino begun restoration. (Thenew dedication comes from the chains thatthe slaves, who were treated in the closehospital, once free put on the Virgin altar asex voto). On 1630 it was restored togetherwith the convent that was annex, while thefaçade was made at the beginning of the fol-lowing century. On 1932 it was given to theArchconfraternity of Palafrenieri, that movedfrom the church of Sant’Anna in Borgo. Theconvent that is annex has its entrance on theadjacent via di San Girolamo della Carità,where has also its seat the palace of thehomonymous Hospice that was restored byPaparelli on 1632. On the left side of thesquare, with its façade towards via di Mon-serrato, rises the very ancient church titledto San Gerolamo. During the first half ofQuattrocento, the Pope Martino V made buildto the Minori Conventuali Fathers an hospi-tal in via di Monserrato. The block, that al-so involved the convent, was built near thesmall church that was rebuilt and devotedagain to San Girolamo della Carità (accord-ing to the settle in it of Charity Archconfra-

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ternity) at the end of the same century. Here,where in the meantime arrived Minori Fa-thers, lived San Filippo Neri on 1551. He fos-tered the building of the oratory inside thechurch. After a disastrous fire, on 1660 thetemple was reconstructed, this time byDomenico Castelli, the architect coming fromTicino, while the façade was made by CarloRainaldi. Many prestigious works are in thechurch. Altamoro chapel is one of them andit was made by Filippo Juvarra on the sev-entheenth century. However, the real mas-terpiece is the noble chapel made byFrancesco Borromini on 1657 for Father Vir-gilio Spada. The small place, placed on theright side of church entrance portal, wasplanned like a prismal casing which walls aredecorated with marble imitating damaskweaving. The proper baroque taste for illu-sions and scenic design is animated by deadimage and creation of angel holding altarcloth. The path along via di Monserrato endswith the sixtheenth edifice of Fioravantide Cadilhac palace, no. 61, that proposemajestic lines of the close Farnese palace.On its cantonal the building is characterizedby a typical Marian aedicule, compoundedwith a simple stucco frame representing theseventheenth image of Madonna col Bambi-no (mixed technic on sheet of slate).

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I t is the street that joins piazza del-l’Orologio and piazza di Pasquino crossing

one of the most suggestive area of the city,in the middle of Parione and Ponte histori-cal quarters. On its turn, this zone developsaround the capital most famous urban areain the world: Piazza Navona. This rose onthe guises of the stadium asked for Dom-iziano emperor (86 b.C) for celebrating theRoman agon. It become the true “theatre”of baroque Rome in the period of Pope In-nocenzo X Pamphili.The same via del Governo Vecchio was fa-mous as via di Parione until the end of eigh-teenth century, and the square in which itconverged, the current Piazza di Pasquino,was marked by the same toponym. It rep-resented a frame of the ancient via Papalis,together with the present via del Banco diSanto Spirito, via dei Banchi Nuovi and Pi-azza Pasquino. The street, starting from diPonte square arrived to Laterano, crossingthrough the Capitol and Coliseum, wasplaced by the Pope Sisto IV della Rovere onQuattrocento for marking the path followedby popes during the solemn Possession day.After pontifical election, the new bishop ofRome left St. Peter to St. John, for cele-brating the “take-over” of the patriarchalLateran basilica. On its way back, the au-gust pontifical procession passed throughCampo de’ Fiori square. The street, that be-fore the opening of corso Vittorio Emanueleumbertine artery, continued up to Sant’An-drea della Valle facing Massimo alle Colonnepalace, took the present toponym of Gov-erno Vecchio after 1741, when the seat ofRoman Governorate moved from NardiniPalace, that was built on the pontifical roadon 1473, to Madama Palace for popeBenedetto XIV will.Via del Governo Vecchio was one of the mainarteries in the quarter, rightly linked to thesame famous via del Pellegrino (the streetcrossed by “romei” who were precisely thepilgrims, going to the Vatican, was adjustedby Pope Sisto IV) through scenic streets

squarely opened on its right side, and com-municating with the central piazza Navona,through Pasquino widening. Both the quar-ter and the ancient via di Parione, embel-lished themselves with a great building blockstarting from XV century, thanks to initia-tives by Pope Della Rovere urban enlightenedpolicy, who was the real city “renewer” and“renovator”. Pope Paolo III Farnese contin-ued the great fifteenth-century projects,working aiming at creating an Alma Roma tobe presented to the Catholic world in viewof the Jubilee of 1550. He planned an im-portant project for the city in which the pon-tifical street was greatly involved. This ur-ban growing process reach its summit in themiddle of seventeenth century, when Inno-cenzo X made the area a Pamphili insula, re-building family houses in shape of monu-ments, whose original block was in Piazza diPasquino.Popular and striking contribution of the oldfairs and market hold in the near PiazzaNavona, and the sharp, popular and politi-cal life scenes, linked to Pasquino presence,the most famous among talking statues inRome, added prestige to via del Governo Vec-chio.

The path introducing to the famous Romanstreet, starting from piazza dell’Orologio(from the side involved in Ponte quarter), issoon marked by a great factory, that one ofBoncompagni-Corcos palace, no. 3. It wasbuilt by Corcos Jewish family at the end ofsixteenth century. They were converted toChristianity in the person of Salomon who,after been educated by Filippini Fathers andbaptized, took surname and insignia of PopeGregorio XIII Boncompagni: heraldic drakesof the crest appears instead of capitals placedon columns top that mark palace main por-tal. Many big religious blocks mark the pathalong via del Governo Vecchio, starting fromthe very famous Filippini Convent, faced onPiazza dell’Orologio. It is involved in thebiggest factory made by Francesco Borromi-

VIA DEL GOVERNO VECCHIO

ni starting from 1637, supported by Marus-celli. The bulk austerity stop at the cornerof via del Governo Vecchio, in the sidearranged by the same architect from Ticinoon 1647 who was really interested in it. Onthis side there is the clock tower (from herethe name of the square) erected on 1648,crowned by wrought iron airy fastigium anddecorated on its front by the mosaic imageof Madonna Vallicelliana. At the same cor-ner between the square and via del Gover-no Vecchio there is one of the many Maritimeaedicule in town, made by Tommaso Righiand Antonio Bicchierai on 1756. The fresco,representing Madonna with Child, is em-braced in a redundant stucco frame sup-ported by angels. However, crossing via delGoverno Vecchio lead to stop in front of eachsingle building facing on it, as also the “lessimportant” building constituting fascinatingarchitectonic background is an importantwitness. At nn. 12-13 there is a fifteenth-century house animated by a suggestivebricks façade. Then there is a sixteenth-cen-tury house, nn. 14-17, characterized by anelegant prospect shaped by an harmonic ash-lar curtain and an arches lodge alternatingto windows that are arched and marked byionic small pillars. A similar architectoniccomposition also marks the last floor, wherethe openings are oblong and supports arecrowned by elegant composite capitals. Thenice rooftop loggia decorated with stuccoesgoes back to seventeenth century. It rises inthe corner block between via del GovernoVecchio and dell’Avila alley. Here on 1830was born Pietro Cossa, a famous dramatistand left party liberal, who also was the in-spirer of Giordano Bruno monument placedin the close Campo de’ Fiori square. Abreastof via del Corallo there are eighteenth-cen-tury tables marking the border betweenPonte and Parione. They were placed by PopeBenedetto XIV who, in occasion of Jubilee of1750, made a new borders definition of thefourteen historical quarters. Number 39 ofNardini Palace is one of the most significantbuilding of the street. It was erected start-ing from 1473 by Stefano Nardini, Milan arch-

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Obishop and Rome Governor, who was elect-ed cardinal that year. The most ancient partof the building (on via della Fossa), involv-ing part of the previous construction, wasconcluded two years later, as one can read,on an architrave of the inner court, whilethe main façade was concluded among 1477and 1478, as windows inscriptions reveal.The block was firstly articulated around threecourts and crowned by the same keeps. On1480 it was donated to the Company of Lat-eran Hospital of Savior, to whom alludedChrist graffito image put on the main façade(that one towards Governo Vecchio), for host-ing a College for humanistic studies. On thesame prospect, rehandled in the followingcentury, emerges the wonderful marble por-tal decorated with classical ornaments in-terlaced to Nardini crest. On 1624 Pope Ur-bano VII made it the seat of Rome Gover-norate until 1741; on 1870 it passed to beRome Town Hall property and it was the seatof civil praetorship until 1964. At the end itwas given to Rome Town Hall. In front of thegreat Nardini block there is Turci Palace, atno. 124, whose simple and delicate six-teenth-century façade goes back to that oneof the close Chancellery palace, even if in aless range. Corresponding to no. 48 there isSassi fifteenth-century palace, later passedto Fornari. It is distinguishable by the crest,half banded and half marked by a lion headdominating the portal. Here Sassi familypicked up a precious collection of ancientstatues, later moved to Farnese palace. Inthe middle of the street there is via di Pari-one, also called via di San Tommaso in Pari-one for the homonymous church facing on it.The small temple, that was consecrated on1139, was donated motu proprio to the Com-pany of Writers and Copists in the half of fif-teenth century, and later was promoted tocardinalship. On 1582 it was completely re-built on project by Francesco da Volterra,asked for two members of Cerrini noble fam-ily. On 1825, after it was given to SS.Addo-lorata Confraternity, it was restored again.In front of the nice house, no. 104, datedend of XV century, characterized with paint-

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ed and graffito façade (it is possible to seeother samples of this kind of suggestive fash-ion spreaded in Rome during the Renaissancein the alley of Governo Vecchio at no. 52 andin the close Ricci square), there is Mignanel-li-Fonseca palace, at no. 62. The originalblock of fifteenth century building, madebuilt by Mignanelli family coming from Siena,was planned again on the seventeenth cen-

tury by the new owner Gabriele Fonseca (apontifical doctor) who ordered works toOrazio Torriani. At no. 84, at the corner withvia dei Leutari, there is the small palace be-longed to Peretti family, Pope Sisto V fam-ily, that was restored by Domenico Fontanaat the end of sixteenth century. Passingthrough other historical buildings, there isPasquino square that is marked on each sideby important factories like Braschi palace,the backside of Pamphili palace, Bonadies-Lancellotti palace and the church of Our LordJesus Christ Nativity of the Agonizzanti Arch-confraternity. This last was erected on 1692by order of the homonymous association (thathad the duty of praying for moribund and as-sisting the condemned) and by project ofGiovan Battista Contini, who culled this build-ing on a previous factory leaving unalteredthe external aspect. Alessandro Gaulli (sonof the most famous Giovan Battista) tookover works on 1708 and few years later Pao-lo Zampa who made the sacristy (later re-made during restorations of 1748) keepingone nave plan. On 1861Andrea Busiri Vicigave the present aspect to the church, theharmonic and elegant façade (missing untilthat time) and the new design of internaldecoration. However, urban space is famousand has its toponymous to Pasquino statue,that was put by cardinal Oliviero Carafa nearOrsini palace on 1501. The original building,where the cardinal lived, was restored byartists like Bramante and Antonio da San-gallo il Giovane. It was destroyed on 1791 byPio VI Braschi who liked to build an house forhis nephews there. The statue, founded dur-ing Orsini palace building, is the fragmentof an old sculptural block that, in its turn,is the reproduction of a more ancient sculp-ture representing Menelao supporting Pa-troclo (240-230 a.C.). The entablementwhere “Parione bust” was put on started tobe used for affixing anonymous and very of-ten barbed witticism, directed to the churchand political class, the so called “pasqui-nades”. Still today, in front of Braschi palaceashlor massive angle, Pasquino “speaks” topeople through lots of peaces of paper.

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I t is the street marked out at the end ofthe sixtheenth century for complementing

the area of Tridente, that is involved in thecentral quarter of Campo Marzio. The nameof this street recalls one of the most pictu-resque path of the Capital, linked to art char-me and image. With respect to other Tri-dente arteries it is placed in the backgroundand it is animated by suggestive places. ViaMargutta represented a new kind of settle-ment for many artists. Since 1600 paintersand sculptors generation chosen this narrowand long street as seat for their own ateliersand houses, giving to it the bohèmien andinternational character that marked it stilltoday. Via Margutta falls in to the area mar-ked by the three streets that fanning outfrom Piazza del Popolo reach Piazza Vene-zia, according to a road shape that was mar-ked in the first half of the XVI century. Thisexcellent urban expression begun with Cor-so (that in part revokes the old via Flaminiapath) followed by via Leonina (Ripetta) andvia Paolina (del Babuino), in a contest of avaried order that was ended with the ope-ning of via Trinitatis (dei Condotti). The ur-banization catalysing element of this part ofthe ancient Campo Marzio was the buildingof San Giacomo in Augusta Hospital on 1399,from which it started building trade, shopsand commerce developing. Later, papal po-licy gave a great impulse ever since addres-sed to this part of the city, mainly with thereconstruction of Santa Maria del Popolochurch, asked for Sisto IV in view of the GreatJubilee of 1475, that was the crucial moti-vation for the quarter following and speedyexpansion. After tridente making up in thisarea, that was mainly occupied by religiouscommunities and noble families gardens, itstarted a zoning process leading to definiti-ve area transformation. Firstly along the we-stern part of Pincio, that one between Cor-so and via Margutta, Massimi, Naro and Gran-di families horti and gardens extended withno break. Pope Paolo III for solving housingproblem for pilgrims coming to the holy city

for the Great Jubilees, in the half of six-theenth century zoned the big vinery of Do-menico Massimi, that was in part involved inthe goods of San Giacomo hospital and inpart bought by the barber Margut. To him islinked the recent toponym of the street re-sulting for the first time in the city chart edi-ted by Cartaro on 1576. Near to Massimi pro-perty there were those of Alessandro Gran-di, a noble from Ferrara, and those of Ora-zio Naro, who sold for building many partsof its land placed near via Margutta on 1565.While along the river the working class livedthanks to harbour trades, in this large areaextended from Collina to Corso it settled avery refined social range consisting of forei-gners and artists. After tridente total defi-nition it followed the area urbanization ac-cording to a building plan ended at the endof the ninetheenth century and that also in-volved via Margutta. The street, characteri-zed by minor small buildings from eigh-theenth, is still animated by a large part ofgreen, coming from what remains from theold gardens of Naro family, the vinery of thefathers of Santa Maria del Popolo and, to theend of path, the garden of Cenci. In the greatcircular area placed at the entrance of viaMargutta, where there was the nausomachia,now there is De Merode block. It is prece-ded by settling of one of the most famousroman theatres, the Alibert. In fact, thestreet, besides for the presence of some pre-stigious noble factories and the housing ofmany patrons who attracted the artists, wasfamous for the great number of resort andshow places.

The path along via Margutta begins from thecorner block between via Alibert, via delBabuino and via Margutta, where there isGiuseppe Valadier house, entrance at no.89 of via del Babuino, who died on 1839here. The small building, settled in two timesduring the first half of ninetheenth centuryby Antonio Sarti, owes its fame to the factthat it was the first house of the famous ro-

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man architect, who is responsible for thelarge part of the area ninetheenth transfor-mation, firstly for piazza del Popolo arrange-ment. No. 3 of the small via Alibert, fromwhich via Margutta starts, is defined by theashlared substantial building where has itsseat part of De Merode institute block thatwas built by Tullio Passarelli among 1900 and1903 on the big area that is adjacent to thatone where there was the Alibert theatre, atthe corner between the homonymous streetand via Margutta. It was one of the mostbeautiful theatre of eightheenth Rome, fos-tered by Antonio d’Alibert at the beginningof the century on the ground of the pre-ex-isting small building made built by his fatherGiacomo (who was the promoter of Tor diNona theatre) for the game of royal tennis

on 1660. Both Tor di Nona and Alibert werethe first roman theatres hosting women ex-hibitions. After many restoration works,among that the restoration by the famousarchitect Ferdinando Fuga, and correspon-ding transfers of property, the theatre wasbought by Torlonia on 1847, who entrustedmasonry rebuilding to Nicola Carnevali. Theblock, made famous by written representa-tions by Metastasio on previous century, wascompletely destructed on 1863. De Merodebuilding consists of the main part of the blockbetween via Alibert, via di San Sebastianel-lo and Piazza di Spagna (the main entranceis at no. 3 of the square, in the ex Cecca-relli palace). It consists of San Giuseppe Col-lege, San Francesco Saverio De Merode in-stitute and San Giovanni Battista de la Sallechurch, managed by Christian School Broth-ers or Lasalliani. The congregation, who wasborn in France on 1684 for educating freethe children of less rich families, during thefollowing century arrived to Rome. On 1850was created the school for the children ofFrench officials living in Rome, that is theorigin of San Giuseppe College, it settled inthe recent seat on 1885. The ninetheenthbuilding of the college, made by Ciriaco Sal-vadori Baschieri on the area bought by Tor-lonia, consisted in a big block settled arounda porticoed court, marked by pink granitecolumns. At the beginning of the followingcentury, it was built De Merode instituteblock, by plan of Passarelli. The only churchthat is visible from via Margutta is San Gio-vanni Battista de la Salle, whose pseudo-façade (it is the right side) is on via Alibert,on the left side of De Merode institute. Thetemple, that at the beginning was titled toSan Giuseppe, was made by Ciriaco SalvadoriBaschieri (who also built the College), aneclectic architect of sixtheenth line, duringthe last twenty years of Ottocento. Thechurch is settled on one nave, divided inthree spans that are covered with cross vault,and it ended with an apse that is on a neo-medieval architectonic lexis, the same thatrecalls the women’s gallery supported bycolumns. A plaque at the entrance celebrate

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the prince Alessandro Torlonia, who offeredthe property for settling the church, and hisdaughter Annamaria, who contributed to therich decoration put inside. The small build-ing at no. 60 of via Margutta also belongedto Alibert family, later it passed to Torlonia(whose crest is on the façade), and it alsopassed to Lasalle property. Going to piazzadel Popolo, on via Margutta side to the Pin-cio, that one that is still marked by manyplaces destined to courts and gardens, thereis the quarter small fountain made by thearchitect Pietro Lombardi during the Gover-norate years. The small wall fountain, dat-ed MCMXXVII (1927), is animated by two bigmasks put in a grid assembled with instru-ments that, in a stylized shape, recall lifetypical artistic activity. It was planned forthe competition that was announced by Rometown hall on 1925, won by Lombardi, whowas author of other famous roman quarterfountains. Then, there is the gate of Palaz-zo Patrizi, at no. 54. They are many differ-ent buildings, also for time of settling, placedaround the big inner court, whose sugges-tive ground is represented by wood wings ofsupervisor Pincio hill. On the left side thereis the building hosting the seat of the ArtistsClub, memory of via Margutta glorious past,while, on the other side there is a big build-ing dated first of Novecento. In front of itthere is a modern building where now thereis the most prestigious Italian auction house(Finarte-Semenzato), art spreader and linkedfrom years to via Margutta. It also belongsto Patrizi family the following buildings: thefirst, no. 53, marked by very elegant framedwindows and focused on the façade by a nicesmall loggia, is dated 1858. Then, nn. 51-53, there is a three gates entrance, made

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by sophisticated wrought iron laces, drivingto places planned by Antonio Bonfigli for themarquis Francesco Patrizi, who wanted drawpainting and sculpture studies. Inside, in frontof the building that was the seat of EnglishAcademy, there is a big oval pool laterallymarked by roman capitals. At last, no. 53a,preceded by a court adorned with two foun-tains, there is a four floor building whosepeculiar element is the façade enriched byplaster bust made by Italian artists. The smallninetheenth building corresponding to no.51a, also hosted art studies on its groundfloor (at present it belongs to Sant’AlessioBlinds Institute). In the rear part it is markedby stairs “climbing” to Pincio slopes. Path onvia Margutta, mainly marked by eightheenthcentury building on the side to Tridente andby charming green areas on the side to thehill, is marked by the posterior entrance ofBoncompagni Cerasi Palace, no. 90, whosewonderful main façade faces the parallel viadel Babuino. The original sixtheenth build-ing block can be recognized in Alessandro deGrandis home (that is incorporated in nextfactories). It has been the first private homegetting connection to Acqua Vergine on 1571,on its façade was put the famous Babuinofountain on 1576. Close to Piazza del Popo-lo, a group of houses end the path. It is pos-sible to distinguish buildings of the so calledBorghetto (the homonymous alley crosses viaMargutta), and that is also called “lousy”.Once it consisted of poors houses crowdedto the long wall reaching the church of San-ta Maria del Popolo.

ROBERTO DEL SIGNORE

Cultural Heritage Office

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