Piazza del Popolo

The Piazza del Popolo is a square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "piazza of the people", but historically it derives from the poplars ("populus" in Latin, "pioppo" in Italian) after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.

The Piazza lies inside the northern gate in the Aurelian Walls, once the Porta Flaminia of ancient Rome, and now called Porta del Popolo. This was the starting point of the Via Flaminia, the road to "Ariminum" (modern Rimini) and the most important route to the north. At the same time, before the age of railroads, it was the traveller's first view of Rome upon arrival. For centuries, the Piazza del Popolo was a place for public executions, the last of which took place in 1826.

Valadier's design

The layout of the piazza today was designed in neoclassical style between 1811 and 1822 by the architect Giuseppe Valadier, [Valadier published his first proposal for the Piazza del Popolo in 1794; the final proposal as built appeared in 1816, when the works were already in progress.] who demolished some insignificant buildings and haphazard high screening walls to form two semicircles, reminiscent of Bernini's plan for St. Peter's Square, replacing the original cramped trapezoidal square centred on the Via Flaminia. Valadier's Piazza del Popolo, however, incorporated the verdure of trees as an essential element; he conceived his space in a third dimension, expressed in the building of the "viale" that leads up to the balustraded overlook from the Pincio ("above, right").

An Egyptian obelisk of Rameses II from Heliopolis stands in the centre of the Piazza. The obelisk, known as the "obelisco Flaminio", is the second oldest and one of the tallest obelisks in Rome (some 24 m high, or 36 m including its plinth). The obelisk was brought to Rome in 10 BC by order of Augustus and originally set up in the Circus Maximus. It was re-erected here in the Piazza by the architect-engineer Domenico Fontana in 1589 as part of the urban plan of Sixtus V. The Piazza also formerly contained a central fountain, which was moved to the Piazza Nicosia in 1818, when fountains in the form of Egyptian-style lions were added around the base of the obelisk. Looking from the north ("illustration, right"), three streets branch out from the Piazza, forming the so-called "trident" ("il Tridente"): the Via del Corso in the centre, the Via del Babuino on the left (opened in 1525 as the Via Paolina) and the Via di Ripetta (opened by Leo X in 1518 as the Via Leonina) on the right. Twin churches (the "chiese gemelle") of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1681) and Santa Maria in Montesanto (1679), begun by Carlo Rainaldi and completed by Bernini and Carlo Fontana, define the junctions of the roads. Close scrutiny of the twin churches reveals that they are not mere copies of one another, as they would have been in a Neoclassical project, but vary in their details, offering variety within their symmetrical balance in Baroque fashion.

To the south, the central Via del Corso follows the course extended beyond the city gate as the ancient Roman Via Flaminia , coming from the Capitol and the forum. The Via Flaminia became known as the Via Lata in the Middle Ages, before becoming today's Via del Corso and leads to the Piazza Venezia. The Via di Ripetta leads past the Mausoleum of Augustus to the Tiber, where the riverside landing called the Porto di Ripetta was located until the late nineteenth century. The Via del Babuino ("Baboon"), linking to Piazza di Spagna, takes its name from a grotesque sculpture of Silenus that gained the popular name of "the Baboon".

To the north of the Piazza stand the Porta del Popolo, leading to the Piazzale Flaminio, and the ancient church of Santa Maria del Popolo. The Porta del Popolo was reconstructed to the current appearance by Pope Alexander VII in 1655, to welcome Queen Christina of Sweden to Rome after her conversion to Roman Catholicism and abdication. It was designed by Bernini: whereas such festive structures elsewhere were built of weather-resistant plaster, [See the festive tradition of the royal entry.] in Rome the structure was more permanently executed in stone. Opposite Santa Maria del Popolo stands a Carabinieri station, with a dome reflecting that of the church.In his urbanistic project, Valadier constructed the matching "palazzi" that provide a frame for the scenography of the twin churches and hold down two corners of his composition. A third palazzo he set to face and matched low structure screening the flank of Santa Maria del Popolo, with its fine Early Renaissance façade, together holding down the two northern corners. Valadier outlined this newly-defined oval forecourt to the city of Rome with identical sweeps of wall, forming curving exedra-lke spaces. Behind the western one, a screen of trees masks the unassorted fronts of buildings beyond.

Fountains

The aqueduct carrying the Acqua Vergine Nuovo was completed in the 1820s, and its water provided the opportunity for fountains and their basins that offered the usual public water supply for the "rione". Ever since the Renaissance such terminal fountains also provided an occasion for the grand terminal water show called in Rome a "mostra". "What makes a fountain a "mostra" is not essentially its size or splendor, but its specific designation as the fountain that is a public memorial to the whole achievement of the aqueduct." [Peter J. Aicher, "Terminal Display Fountains ("Mostre") and the Aqueducts of Ancient Rome" "Phoenix" 47.4 (Winter 1993:339-352), p 339. Aicher makes a case for the terminal fountains as features of modern Rome, but not of ancient Rome, as commonly assumed in the standard works listed in his bibliography p. 339.] Valadier had planned for fountains in the upper tier of the Pincio slope, but the were not carried out, in part for lack of water. [M.G. Tolomeo, "Le fontane del piazza del Popolo e la mostra del nuovo aquedotto Vergine elevato", "Il Trionfo dell'acqua" (Rome, 1986:240-43).]

The fountains by Giovanni Ceccarini (1822-23), with matching compositions of a central figure flanked by two attendant figures, stand on each side of the Piazza to the east and west, flanked by neoclassical statues of "The Seasons" (1828). [Touring Club Italiano, "Roma e dintorni" 1965:181, gives the names of the four sculptors responsible: Filippo Guaccarini ("Spring"), Francesco Massimiliano Laboureur ("Summer"), Achille Stocchi ("Autumn"), and Felice Raini ("Winter").] . "Neptune with two Tritons", [This fountain should not be confused with the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza Navona.] stands on the west side, Neptune with his trident is accompanied by two dolphins. "Rome between the Tiber and the Aniene" on the east side, against the steep slope of the Pincio, represents the terminal "mostra" of the aqueduct. Dea Roma armed with lance and helmet, and in front is the she-wolf feeding Romulus and Remus.

At the center of the piazza is the "Fontana dell' Obelisco": a group of four mini fountains each comprising a lion on a step plinth, surround the obelisk.

Urbanisation in three dimensions

Valadier's masterstroke was in linking the piazza with the heights of the "Pincio", the Pincian Hill of ancient Rome, which overlooked the space from the east. He swept away informally terraced gardens that belonged to the Augustinian monastery connected with Santa Maria del Popolo. In its place he created a carriage drive that doubled back upon itself and pedestrian steps leading up beside a waterfall to the "Pincio" park, where a balustraded lookout, supported by a triple-arched nymphaeum is backed by a wide gravelled opening set on axis with the piazza below; formally-planted bosquets of trees flank the open space. The planted Pinco in turn provides a link to the Villa Borghese gardens.

Until quite recently, the Piazza del Popolo was choked with traffic in a sea of car parking; today, these have been swept away in favour of pedestrians.

Notes

References

*Giedion, Siegfried, "Space, Time and Architecture" pp 151-54
* [http://www.thais.it/citta_italiane/roma/fontane/piazze/piazza_popolo/pag_0.htm Thais-Rome: Fountains]

External links

* [http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi21.htm Roberto Piperno "Piazza del Popolo"]
* [http://www.italycyberguide.com/Geography/cities/rome2000/E6a.htm Riccardo Cigola, "Piazza del Popolo"]
* [http://www.rome-guide.it/english/monuments/monuments_piazza_del_popolo.html Piazza del Popolo]