Description
Piazza Navona is Rome's most scenic Baroque square: long, narrow, closed in by ocher palaces, with three fountains in a row and the undulating facade of a church. It is a place to walk, to look around and to stop at a cafe table.
In the middle is Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, with an obelisk rising from a rocky cliff and four marble giants: the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile and the Río de la Plata, the four corners of the Earth as it was then known.
Opposite stands Sant'Agnese in Agone, the church with the concave facade and two towers by Borromini, Bernini's rival. At the two ends of the square, the Fountain of the Moor, sculpted by Giacomo della Porta and touched up by Bernini, and that of Neptune.
Why is the square so long, with one curved side? Because it was not born as a square: under the houses lies the Stadium of Domitian, and the square kept its shape and measurements. It was 265 meters long and held 30,000 spectators, who came to watch athletics contests.
The name "in Agone," meaning "of the games," over time became Navona. For centuries jousts, carnivals and markets were held here. Then, in the 1600s, Pope Innocent X Pamphilj decided the square should celebrate his family, and built the family palace there.
The race for the commissions was fierce. It was said that Bernini won over the pope's powerful sister-in-law, Donna Olimpia, by giving her a silver model of his fountain. In summer, until the 1800s, the concave floor of the square was flooded to cool the city: Pius IX abolished the custom in 1866.
All around look out palaces with stories of families and popes. Palazzo Pamphilj was built between 1644 and 1650 by Girolamo Rainaldi; Palazzo Braschi dates from the late 1700s. A short walk away, in Piazza Pasquino, stands the statue of Pasquino, said to come from the stadium.
Don't miss
• The Fountain of the Four Rivers.
• Sant'Agnese in Agone.
• The Fountain of the Moor.
• The square at night, when the lights come on.
Did you know?
• A legend says the Nile covers his face so as not to see Borromini's church. In fact the fountain came first: the veil shows that the river's sources were then unknown.
• The obelisk in the middle comes from the Circus of Maxentius on the Appian Way.
• La Befana is the Christmas market held until Epiphany.
In the middle is Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, with an obelisk rising from a rocky cliff and four marble giants: the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile and the Río de la Plata, the four corners of the Earth as it was then known.
Opposite stands Sant'Agnese in Agone, the church with the concave facade and two towers by Borromini, Bernini's rival. At the two ends of the square, the Fountain of the Moor, sculpted by Giacomo della Porta and touched up by Bernini, and that of Neptune.
Why is the square so long, with one curved side? Because it was not born as a square: under the houses lies the Stadium of Domitian, and the square kept its shape and measurements. It was 265 meters long and held 30,000 spectators, who came to watch athletics contests.
The name "in Agone," meaning "of the games," over time became Navona. For centuries jousts, carnivals and markets were held here. Then, in the 1600s, Pope Innocent X Pamphilj decided the square should celebrate his family, and built the family palace there.
The race for the commissions was fierce. It was said that Bernini won over the pope's powerful sister-in-law, Donna Olimpia, by giving her a silver model of his fountain. In summer, until the 1800s, the concave floor of the square was flooded to cool the city: Pius IX abolished the custom in 1866.
All around look out palaces with stories of families and popes. Palazzo Pamphilj was built between 1644 and 1650 by Girolamo Rainaldi; Palazzo Braschi dates from the late 1700s. A short walk away, in Piazza Pasquino, stands the statue of Pasquino, said to come from the stadium.
Don't miss
• The Fountain of the Four Rivers.
• Sant'Agnese in Agone.
• The Fountain of the Moor.
• The square at night, when the lights come on.
Did you know?
• A legend says the Nile covers his face so as not to see Borromini's church. In fact the fountain came first: the veil shows that the river's sources were then unknown.
• The obelisk in the middle comes from the Circus of Maxentius on the Appian Way.
• La Befana is the Christmas market held until Epiphany.