Description
Piazza del Campidoglio is the square Michelangelo designed on top of the Capitoline Hill, where the Romans dedicated many temples to the gods: three palaces, a gentle staircase and, in the middle, Marcus Aurelius on horseback. The city government has had its seat here for almost nine centuries.
You get there by the Cordonata, a ramp of wide, shallow steps designed so you could ride up on horseback, which starts between two basalt lions. Halfway up is the statue of Cola di Rienzo; at the top, the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, the Trophies of Marius and a milestone column from the Appian Way.
In the middle is the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which used to stand in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano: Michelangelo set it here on a new pedestal and made it the pivot of the whole project. On the square there's a copy; the restored original, with traces of its gilding, is indoors in the Capitoline Museums.
At the far end stands the Palazzo Senatorio, the city hall, with its double staircase; on the sides, the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, which house the Capitoline Museums.
The square is slightly trapezoidal: Michelangelo kept the crooked alignment of the buildings that were already there, and the side palaces open out toward the far end, widening the view. The geometric design of the pavement is his, but it was laid only in 1940, taken from an old engraving.
Michelangelo turned the square around: instead of the Roman Forum, the heart of the ancient city, he made it face St. Peter's, the new center of power. Paul III had asked him for the work after Charles V's visit in 1536, when the hill lay neglected.
He died in 1564 with the work still underway, and the Palazzo Nuovo was finished only in the mid-17th century.
The hill was once also called “Caprino”, for the goats that grazed here. And in 1670, for the election of Pope Clement X, wine flowed from the lion fountains instead of water: white on one side, red on the other.
You get there by the Cordonata, a ramp of wide, shallow steps designed so you could ride up on horseback, which starts between two basalt lions. Halfway up is the statue of Cola di Rienzo; at the top, the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, the Trophies of Marius and a milestone column from the Appian Way.
In the middle is the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which used to stand in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano: Michelangelo set it here on a new pedestal and made it the pivot of the whole project. On the square there's a copy; the restored original, with traces of its gilding, is indoors in the Capitoline Museums.
At the far end stands the Palazzo Senatorio, the city hall, with its double staircase; on the sides, the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, which house the Capitoline Museums.
The square is slightly trapezoidal: Michelangelo kept the crooked alignment of the buildings that were already there, and the side palaces open out toward the far end, widening the view. The geometric design of the pavement is his, but it was laid only in 1940, taken from an old engraving.
Michelangelo turned the square around: instead of the Roman Forum, the heart of the ancient city, he made it face St. Peter's, the new center of power. Paul III had asked him for the work after Charles V's visit in 1536, when the hill lay neglected.
He died in 1564 with the work still underway, and the Palazzo Nuovo was finished only in the mid-17th century.
The hill was once also called “Caprino”, for the goats that grazed here. And in 1670, for the election of Pope Clement X, wine flowed from the lion fountains instead of water: white on one side, red on the other.