060608


Piazza del Popolo

Typology: Streets and squares

Address

Address: Piazza del Popolo
Zone: Rione Campo Marzio (P.Spagna-P.Popolo-Pincio) (Roma centro)

Contacts

Description

Already designed in the seventeenth century as a monumental entrance to the city for pilgrims arriving from the north, from the Via Flaminia, the 'most Parisian of Rome's squares' owes its famous urban planning and construction to the architect Giuseppe Valadier. It was he who began the study in 1793 and finally completed it in the second decade of the nineteenth century.
The two exedras adorned with statues and fountains that limit the two sides of the square, the architectural arrangement of the Pincio slope, the symmetrical buildings on either side of the Porta del Popolo and the four basins with marble lions at the base of the Egyptian obelisk (the oldest after the Lateran) are the result of his designs.
The churches of Santa Maria del Popolo, next to the gate, Santa Maria di Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli, at the beginning of the so-called "Tridente" (Via del Babuino, Via del Corso, Via Ripetta), date back to the 15th and 17th centuries. The author of the Renaissance reconstruction of the former is unknown, while Carlo Rainaldi, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Carlo Fontana are the architects of the latter.

See also

Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Architectural and historical heritage
Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Architectural and historical heritage
Last checked: 2022-07-13 12:50
©2007 - Roma Classic version