Page 76 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

74  ROME AREA B Y AREA

3 Piazza del 5 Roman Insula
Campidoglio Piazza d’Aracoeli. Map 5 A5 & 12 F4.
Map 5 A5 & 12 F5. @ 40, 62, 63, 64, Tel 06­0608. @ 40, 62, 63, 64, 110, 170.
110, 170. v 8. v 8. Open by appt only: call first.
Two thousand years ago, the
When the Holy Roman Emperor urban poor of Rome used to
Charles V visited Rome in 1536, make their homes in insulae –
Pope Paul III Farnese was so apartment blocks. These were
embarrassed by the muddy often badly maintained by
state of the Capitol that he landlords, and expensive to
asked Michelangelo to draw up rent in a city where land costs
plans for repaving the piazza, were high. This 2nd­century
and for renovating the facades AD tenement block, of barrel­
of the Palazzo dei Conservatori vault construction, is the only
and Palazzo Senatorio. survivor in Rome from that era.
Michelangelo proposed The fourth, fifth, and part of the
adding the Palazzo Nuovo to sixth story remain above current
form a piazza in the shape of ground level.
a trapezium, embellished with In the Middle Ages, a section
Classical sculptures chosen of these upper stories was
for their relevance to Rome. converted into a church; its
Building started in 1546 but Statue of Marcus Aurelius on Piazza bell tower and 14th­century
progressed so slowly that del Campidoglio Madonna in a niche are visible
Michelangelo only lived to from the street.
oversee the double flight of 4 Cordonata During the Fascist years, the
steps at the entrance of Palazzo Map 5 A5 & 12 F5. @ 40, 62, 63, 64, area was cleared, and three
Senatorio. The piazza was 110, 170. v 8. lower floors emerged. Some
completed in the 17th century, 380 people may have lived in
the design remaining largely From Piazza Venezia, the Capitol the tenement, in the squalid
faithful to the original. Pilasters is approached by a gently rising, conditions described by the
two stories high and balus­ subtly widening ramp – the 1st­century AD satirical writers
trades interspersed with statues Cordonata. At the foot is a pair Martial and Juvenal. The latter
link the buildings thematically. of granite Egyptian lions, and mentions that he had to climb
The piazza faces west toward on the left a 19th­century 200 steps to reach his garret.
St. Peter’s, the Christian monument to Cola di Rienzo, This insula may once have
equivalent of the Capitol. At close to where the dashing had more stories. The higher
its center stands a replica of a 14th­century tyrant was you lived, the more dismal
statue of Marcus Aurelius. The executed. The top of the ramp is the conditions, as the cramped
original is in the Palazzo dei guarded by Classical statues of spaces of the building’s upper
Conservatori (see pp72–3). the Dioscuri – Castor and Pollux. levels testify.

The Dioscuri twins looking onto the Cordonata leading up to the Piazza del Campidoglio

US_074-075_EW_Rome_US.indd 74 15/03/17 3:52 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.9)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm