Page 391 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

ROME : THE ANCIENT CENTRE  389

3 Santa Maria NORTHEAST 1 Capitoline
in Aracoeli ROME Museums
The brick façade
hides treasures such THE See pp390–91.
as this 15th-century ANCIENT
fresco of The Funeral CENTRE
of San Bernardino 2 Piazza del
by Pinturicchio. Campidoglio
AVENTINE
AND LATERAN
Map 3 A5. @ 40, 63, 70, 81.
Locator Map
See Rome Street Finder map 3 When Emperor Charles V
announced he was to visit
Rome in 1536, Pope Paul III
Farnese asked Michelangelo
to give the Capitoline a face-
lift. He redesigned the piazza,
renovated the façades of its
Palazzo Nuovo palaces and built a new flight of
was made into a steps, the Cordonata. This gently
public museum rising ramp is now crowned
in 1734. with the massive statues of
Castor and Pollux.
3 Santa Maria
Palazzo Senatorio, the splendid
Renaissance seat of the city in Aracoeli
government, is built on the ruins Scala dell’Arce Capitolina 14.
of the ancient Tabularium.
Map 3 A5. Tel 06 69 76 38 39.
@ 63, 70, 81. Open 9am–6:30pm
VIA DI SAN PIETRO IN CARCERE
2 Piazza del Campidoglio daily (9:30am–5:30pm in winter).
Michelangelo designed the
geometric paving and the This church stands on the site
façades of the buildings. of the temple of Juno on the
northern summit of the
Palazzo dei Conservatori Capitoline Hill, and dates back
to at least the 6th century.
The church is famous for its
ornate gilded ceil ing and a
very fine series of frescoes by
Pinturicchio, dating from the
1480s. They depict scenes from
the life of San Bernardino of
Siena. The miracle-working
Santo Bambino figure, stolen
in 1994, has been replaced
The Temple of Jupiter,
represented on this coin, by a replica.
was dedicated to Jupiter
Optimus Maximus, the
most important of the
Roman gods. He was
believed to have the
power to protect or
destroy the city.
The Tarpeian Rock is a cliff
V I A D E L T E M P I O D I G I O V E
from which traitors were
believed to have been
thrown to their death
in ancient Rome.
Steps to the
Capitoline The marble steps and austere façade of
Santa Maria in Aracoeli

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