Page 383 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

ROME  381

View across the Tiber to Castel Sant’Angelo, crowned by the figure of the angel that gave it its name
3 Castel also used it for sojourns with the 5 Santa Maria in
Sant’Angelo courtesan Imperia, who allegedly Trastevere
inspired one of the Three Graces
Lungotevere Castello 50. Tel 06-681 91 painted by Raphael in the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.
11. @ 23, 34, 40, 280. Open Tue–Sun. Loggia of Cupid and Psyche. Tel 06-581 48 02. @ H, 23, 280,
Closed public hols. & 7 ∑ castel 630, 780. Open daily. 7
santangelo.beniculturali.it The simple, harmonious
design of the Farnesina, with Trastevere, the area “across the
This massive cylindrical fortress a central block and projecting Tiber,” is one of the city’s most
takes its name from the vision wings, made it one of the first attractive quarters: a maze of
of the Archangel Michael, true villas of the Renaissance. narrow, cobbled alleys. Once
experienced by Pope Gregory Peruzzi decorated some of the home to the city’s poor, it has
the Great in the 6th century, as interiors himself, such as the witnessed a proliferation of
he led a procession across the Sala della Prospettiva upstairs, fashionable clubs, restaurants,
bridge, fervently praying for in which illusionistic frescoes and boutiques.
the end of the plague. create the impression of looking At the heart of Trastevere,
The castle began life in out over Rome through a overlooking an attractive
AD 139 as the Emperor marble colonnade. traffic-free square stands
Hadrian’s mausoleum. Since The painted vault of the main the Basilica of Santa Maria –
then it has been a bridgehead hall, the Sala di Galatea, shows probably the first official place
in the Emperor Aurelian’s city the position of the stars at the of Christian worship in Rome.
wall, a medieval citadel and time of Chigi’s birth. After his It was founded by Pope
prison, and a place of safety for death the banking business Callixtus I in the 3rd century,
popes during times of war or collapsed, and in 1577 the villa when Christianity was still a
political unrest. was sold to the Farnese family. minority cult. According to
Visitors are given a glimpse legend, it was built on the
into all aspects of the castle’s site where a fountain of oil
history – from its dank prison had sprung up miraculously
cells to the lavish apartments on the day that Christ was born.
of Renaissance popes. The basilica became the
focus of devotion to the
Madonna. Mary and Christ are
4 Villa Farnesina among the figures depicted
Via della Lungara 230. Tel 06-68 02 72 in the facade mosaics (c.12th
68. @ H, 280, 780. Open Mon–Sat & century). In the apse is a
2nd Sun in month. Closed public hols. stylized 12th-century mosaic
& ∑ villafarnesina.it Coronation of the Virgin, and
below it, a series of realistic
The fabulously wealthy Sienese mosaic scenes from the life
banker, Agostino Chigi, commis- of Mary by the 13th-century
sioned this villa in 1508 from his artist Pietro Cavallini. The
fellow Sienese, Baldassare oldest image of the Virgin is a
Peruzzi. Chigi’s main home was 7th-century icon, which depicts
across the Tiber – the villa was Trompe l’oeil view in the Sala della her as a Byzantine empress
for extravagant banquets. Chigi Prospettiva, Villa Farnesina flanked by a guard of angels.
For hotels and restaurants see pp438–40 and pp441–3

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