Page 128 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

126  ROME AREA B Y AREA

the sayings of the “talking
statue” (renamed Pasquino)
were part of popular culture
up until the 19th century.
Other statues started to “talk”
in the same vein; Pasquino
used to conduct dialogues
with the statue Marforio in
Via del Campidoglio (now
in the court yard of Palazzo
Nuovo, see pp70–71) and with
the Babuino in Via del Babuino
(see p137). Pasquino still “speaks”
on occasion.
r Via del Governo
Vecchio Facade of the Chiesa Nuova
Map 4 E4 & 11 B3. @ 40, 46, 62, 64.
t Chiesa Nuova
The street takes its name Piazza della Chiesa Nuova. Map 4 E4 &
from Palazzo del Governo 11 B3. Tel 06-687 5289. @ 40, 46, 62,
Vecchio, the seat of papal 64. Open 7:30am–noon & 4:30–7pm
government in the 17th and daily. 5
18th centuries. Once part of
the Via Papalis, which led from San Filippo Neri (St. Philip Neri)
the Lateran to St. Peter’s, the is the most appealing of the
street is lined with 15th- and Counter-Reformation saints. A
16th-century houses and highly unconventional reformer,
small workshops. Particularly he required his noble Roman
interesting are those at followers to humble themselves
No. 104 and No. 106. The in public. He made aristocratic
small palazzo at No. 123 young men parade through the
was once thought to streets of Rome in rags or even
Pasquino, the most famous of Rome’s have been the home with a fox’s tail tied behind
satirical “talking statues” of the architect Bramante. them, and set noblemen to
Opposite is Palazzo del work as laborers building his
e Pasquino Governo Vecchio. It is also church. With the help of Pope
known as Palazzo Nardini, from Gregory XIII, his church was
Piazza di Pasquino. Map 4 E4 & 11
C3. @ 40, 46, 62, 64, 70, 81, 87, 116, the name of its founder, which built in place of an old medieval
492, 628. is inscribed on the first-story church, Santa Maria in Vallicella,
windows, with the date 1477. and it has been known ever
This rough chunk of marble is since as the Chiesa Nuova
all that remains of a Hellenistic (new church).
group, probably representing Begun in 1575 by Matteo da
the incident in Homer’s Iliad in Città di Castello and continued
which Menelaus shields the by Martino Longhi the Elder,
body of the slain Patroclus. For it was consecrated in 1599
years it lay as a stepping stone (although the facade, by Fausto
in a muddy medieval street, Rughesi, was only finished in
until it was erected on this 1606). Against San Filippo’s
corner in 1501, near the shop of wishes, the interior was
an outspoken cobbler named decorated after his death; Pietro
Pasquino. Freedom of speech da Cortona frescoed the nave,
was not encouraged in papal dome, and apse, taking nearly
Rome, so the cobbler wrote 20 years. There are also three
out his satirical comments on paintings by Rubens: Madonna
current events and attached and Angels above the altar,
them to the statue. Saints Domitilla, Nereus, and
Other Romans followed suit, Achilleus on the right of the
hanging their maxims and altar, and Saints Gregory, Maurus,
verses on the statue by night and Papias on the left. San
to escape punishment. Despite Filippo is buried in his own
the wrath of the authorities, Via del Governo Vecchio chapel, to the left of the altar.

US_126-127_EW_Rome_US.indd 126 15/03/17 4:20 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.9)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm