Page 250 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

248  ROME AREA B Y AREA

View of the Tiber and the Borgo between Castel Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s by Gaspare Vanvitelli (1653–1736)
9 Santa Maria in line of fire of the cannons character was lost after
Traspontina defending Castel Sant’Angelo redevelopment in the 1930s,
during the Sack of Rome in but it is still enjoyable to stroll
Via della Conciliazione 14. Map 3 C3. 1527. The papal artillery officers the old narrow streets on either
Tel 06-6880 6451. @ 23, 34, 62, 64. insisted that the dome of the side of Via della Conciliazione.
Open 6:30am–noon & 4–7:15pm new church should be as low as
Mon–Sat; 7:30am–1pm Sun. 5 7 possible, so it was built without
a supporting drum. The first
The church occupies the site of chapel to the right is dedicated
an ancient Roman pyramid, to the gunners’ patron saint,
believed in the Middle Ages to Santa Barbara, and is decorated
have been the Tomb of with warlike motifs. In the third
Romulus. The pyramid was chapel on the left are two
destroyed by Pope Alexander VI columns, popularly thought to
Borgia, but representations of it be the ones that saints Peter and
survive in the bronze doors at Paul were bound to before going
the entrance to St. Peter’s and in to their martyrdom nearby.
a Giotto triptych housed in the
Vatican Pinacoteca (see p238).
The present church was 0 The Borgo
begun in 1566 to replace an Map 3 C3. @ 23, 34, 40, 62.
earlier one that had been in the
The Borgo’s name derives from
the German burg, meaning
town. Rome’s Borgo is where
the first pilgrims to St. Peter’s Clement VII, who used the Vatican Corridor
were housed in hostels and to evade capture in 1527
hospices, often for quite lengthy
periods. The first of these foreign q Vatican Corridor
colonies, called “schools,” was Castel Sant’Angelo to the Vatican.
founded in AD 725 by a Saxon, Map 3 C3. @ 23, 34, 40, 62. Closed to
King Ine of Wessex, who wished the public except for special summer
to live a life of penance and to evening events; call 06-0608 for details.
be buried near the Tomb of
St. Peter. These days, hotels, and Locally known as the Passetto
hostels have made the Borgo a (small corridor), this long
The facade of the Carmelite church of Santa colony of international pilgrims passageway was built into the
Maria in Traspontina once again. Much of the area’s fortifications during medieval

US_248-249_EW_Rome_US.indd 248 15/03/17 4:21 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.9)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm