Page 45 - All About History - Issue 09-14

Tour Guide
PIAZZA DI SPAGNA

07 A VERY ENGLISH TEAROOM

08 Sheltering the Jews Founded in 1893, Babington’s The European
Based here for over 100 years, the Collegio legacy
San Guiseppe was attended by the poet tearooms have survived two world
Trilussa and was also, like many Catholic wars and were even frequently The Piazza di Spagna has long been a centre
schools in the city, used to shelter Jews of culture and tourism in the Eternal City,
fleeing Nazi Germany. visited by high-ranking members of with numerous poets, artists and young
Mussolini’s Fascist regime, despite noblemen visiting over the years. Like much
of the rest of Rome, the rich architecture
being a foreign establishment. found here is a testament to the location’s
importance to the rest of the European
powers, and the eagerness of governments
to assert their authority at the centre of the
Christian world. Today the Piazza is still a
popular destination for foreign tourists and
is a famed shopping destination, attracting
tourists from all over the world. The Spanish
Steps and the Trinita dei Monti complete
one of the most popular and recognisable
spots in all of Rome.

02
07 01

03

06
06 The great Tiber
floods and that boat

The Fontana della Barcaccia, literally
meaning ‘the fountain of the old boat’,
was commissioned by Pope Urban VII
in the 17th century. It commemorates
one particularly large flood of the Tiber,
during the winter of 1598, when a large
boat is supposed to have come to rest in
05 the middle of the Piazza. As he lay on his
deathbed, poet John Keats said he could
hear the soft sound of the fountain’s
flowing water.

04 05 SURREALIST
INSPIRATION
04 A NEW DOGMA FOR THE FAITHFUL Neo-classical artist

The Column of the Immaculate Conception Giorgio de Chirico moved
was dedicated to the Catholic dogma of onto the Piazza in 1948.
the Virgin Mary’s immaculate conception, Already a well-known and
espoused by Pope Pius IX on 8 December controversial artist, he
1854. The statue of Mary is 19th-century, remained based in Rome
while the column itself is ancient Roman. until his death in 1978. © Getty; Thinkstock

45