Page 141 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

PIAZZA DI SP A GNA  139

the traditional time for tourists
to take a stroll in the gardens.
One of the most striking
features of the park itself is an
Egyptian-style obelisk that
Emperor Hadrian erected on
the tomb of his favorite, the
beautiful male slave Antinous.
After the slave’s premature death
(according to some accounts,
he died saving the emperor’s
life), Hadrian deified him.
The 19th-century water clock
on Via dell’Orologio was designed
by a Dominican monk. It was Traditional carnival band in Piazza del Popolo
displayed at the Paris Exhibition
of 1889. Domenico Fontana. Over 3,000 i Porta del Popolo
years old, the obelisk was Between Piazzale Flaminio and Piazza
originally brought to Rome by del Popolo. Map 4 F1. @ 117, 119,
Augustus to adorn the Circus 490, 495, 926. v 2. q Flaminio.
Maximus after the conquest
of Egypt. Almost a century The Via Flaminia, built in 220 BC
later, Pope Alexander VII to connect Rome with Italy’s
commissioned Carlo Rainaldi to Adriatic coast, enters the city
build the twin Santa Marias. at Porta del Popolo, a grand
In the 19th century the piazza 16th-century gate built on the
was turned into a grandiose orders of Pope Pius IV de’ Medici.
oval by Giuseppe Valadier, the The architect, Nanni di Baccio
designer of the Pincio Gardens. Bigio, modeled it on a Roman
He also encased Santa Maria del triumphal arch. The outer face
Popolo in a Neo-Classical shell has statues of St. Peter and St.
to make its south facade fit Paul on either side and a huge
in better with the overall Medici coat of arms above.
appearance of the piazza. A century later, Pope
In contrast to the piazza’s air Alexander VII commissioned
The Casina Valadier restaurant in the of ordered rationalism, many of Bernini to decorate the inner
Pincio Gardens the events staged here were face to celebrate the arrival in
barbaric. In the 18th and 19th Rome of Queen Christina of
centuries, public executions Sweden. Lesser visitors were
y Piazza del Popolo were held in Piazza del Popolo, often delayed while customs
often as part of the celebration officers rifled through their
Map 4 F1. @ 117, 119, 490, 495, 926.
v 2. q Flaminio. of Carnival. Condemned men luggage. The only way to speed
were sometimes hammered to things up was with a bribe.
A vast cobbled oval standing at death by repeated blows to the
the apex of the triangle of roads temples. The last time a criminal
known as the Trident, Piazza was executed in this way was
del Popolo forms a grand in 1826, even though the
symmetrical antechamber to guillotine had by then been
the heart of Rome. Twin Neo- adopted as a more efficient
Classical facades stand on either means of execution.
side of the Porta del Popolo; an The riderless horse races from
Egyptian obelisk rises in the the piazza down Via del Corso
center; and the matching were scarcely more humane:
domes and porticoes of Santa the performance of the runners
Maria dei Miracoli and Santa was enhanced by feeding the
Maria in Montesanto flank the horses stimulants, wrapping
beginning of Via del Corso. them in nail-studded ropes,
Although it is now one of the and letting off fireworks at
most unified squares in Rome, their heels.
Piazza del Popolo evolved
gradually over the centuries. In u Santa Maria del
1589 the great town-planning Popolo
pope, Sixtus V, had the obelisk
erected in the center by See pp140–41. Porta del Popolo’s central arch

US_138-139_EW_Rome_US.indd 139 15/03/17 3:52 pm