Page 384 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

382  IT AL Y AND GREECE

6 Piazza Navona
@ 40, 46, 62, 64, 81, 87, 116, 492, 628.
Rome’s most spectactular
Baroque piazza follows the
shape of a 1st-century AD
stadium, built by Domitian
and used for athletic contests
(agones), chariot races, and
other sports. The foundations
of the surrounding buildings
come from the ruined stadium,
traces of which are visible below
the church of Sant’ Agnese in
Agone. The church, created by
the architects Girolamo and
Carlo Rainaldi and Francesco
Borromini, is dedicated to the The Pantheon, a place of worship since the 2nd century AD
virgin martyr, St. Agnes. When
she was stripped naked to force personifying the world’s fronted by a massive
her to renounce her faith, her greatest known rivers at the pedimented portico, screening
hair grew miraculously long, time – the Nile, the Plate, the what appears to be a cylinder
concealing her body. Ganges, and the Danube – fused to a shallow dome. Only
The piazza began to take on sitting on rocks below an from the inside can the true
its present appearance in the obelisk. Bernini also sculpted scale and beauty of the temple
17th century, when Pope the muscle-bound Moor in the be appreciated; a vast
Innocent X commissioned Fontana del Moro, though the hemispherical dome equal
a new church, palace, and present statue is a copy. in radius to the height of
fountain. The fountain, the the cylinder gives perfectly
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, harmonious proportions to the
is Bernini’s most magnificent, 7 Pantheon building. A circular opening in
with statues of four gods Piazza della Rotonda. Tel 06-68 30 02 30. the center of the coffered dome,
@ 116 & many others. Open daily. the oculus, lets in the only light.
Closed Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25. 7 In the 7th century, Christians
claimed that they were being
The Pantheon, the Roman plagued by demons as they
“temple of all the gods,” is the passed by, and permission was
most extraordinary and best given to turn the Pantheon
preserved ancient building in into a church. Today it is lined
Rome. The first temple on the with tombs, ranging from the
site is thought to have restrained monument to
been a conventional Raphael to the huge marble
rectangular affair and porphyry sarcophagi
erected by Agrippa holding the bodies of Italian
between 27 and 25 BC. monarchs.
The present
structure was built, 8 Galleria Doria
and possibly designed,
by Emperor Hadrian in Pamphilj
AD 118. The temple is Via del Corso 305. Tel 06-678 09 39.
@ 64, 70, 81, 85, 117, 119, 492.
Open daily. Closed Jan 1, Easter Sun,
May 1, Aug 15, Dec 25. & 7
∑ doriapamphilj.it
Galleria Doria Pamphilj is a
vast stone edifice, whose
oldest parts date from 1435.
It was owned by the della
Rovere family and then by the
Aldobrandini family, before the
Pamphilj family took possession
of it in 1647. The Pamphilj
Personification of the Ganges, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Piazza Navona added a new wing, a splendid
For hotels and restaurants see pp438–40 and pp441–3

382-383_EW_Europe.indd 382 14/07/16 10:16 am