Rome - December 28, 2011 - Piazza del Popolo 1

Santa Maria del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo: This piazza seems to have it all. A genuine Egyptian obelisk from the reign of Ramses the Great (though originally erected by Seti I, the Pharaohs was in the habit of reusing monuments. In fact this was quite a common practice. Scraping the name of one pharaoh off and substituting their own name next to a list of fairly generic “magnificent deeds”. You know the kind: “I slew mine enemies, burned their fields and did not leave one temple un-desecrated, slaves we did take the survivors and then we slew them too, meaty jam we did make of their flesh. For I am the mighty Scratched-Out-Name and my glory shall live forever…” yeah, about that.

Or in Shelley’s words:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This one was re-erected in the square in 1589 by our old friend Sixtus V (he do get around don’t he?). There is a pair of twin churches. Begun two years apart in 1679 and 1681 each with a fat dome.

The floor plans are posted on signs next to each to show that the domes are only identical from the piazza side. Because the lots were different shapes the domes are as well. One is actually oval and the other round, however from the front they look the same.

Twin churches, Piazza del Popolo

Twin palaces designed in the 19th century on either side of those. Neoclassical-Egyptian lion fountains (four) surrounding the obelisk and a sweeping set of stairs and a fountain with Neptune, statues with facis, trophies of roman arms and ship prows in bronze. At the top of this is a sort of creepy nyphmaneum that looks pretty low rent when compared to the rest of the piazza. It seriously looks like a graveyard for lost statues.

To top it all off there are two domes and a tower on the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, the final dome is over the police station. It is a giant Freudian nightmare of symbols, soft yet voluptuous curving domes, and tall towers and obelisks thrusting upwards towards the sky, fountains spewing water, into irregular oval basins, a gateway or “portal”, wow, this whole piazza is just sick and wrong. Maybe I should lay off the psychiatry books for a few days.

Porta del Popolo: The Aurelian walls are here along with the ancient gate Porto Flamia which was redone by Bernini in the mid sixteenth century on orders of the pope for the entry of Queen Christina of Sweden. I am not sure when the name was changed to Porta del Popolo. All in all it looks rather silly.

Porta del Popolo, formerly Porta Flamia