Description
The Coppedè district is a corner of Rome, in the Trieste neighborhood, that looks as if it came out of a fairy tale: buildings with turrets, spiders, bees, falconers, sundials, and Dante and Petrarch painted on the facades.
It is not a real district, but a complex of 18 buildings and 27 small palaces and villas around Piazza Mincio, named after the architect who designed it, Gino Coppedè.
The project dates from 1915. The style is a cocktail: medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau elements, with echoes of ancient Rome. In 1917 the building commission asked Coppedè for a more Roman stamp, and he answered with imperial cornices, travertine and a great arch recalling the triumphal arches of the Forum.
The main entrance, from via Tagliamento, is precisely an arch joining two buildings, with a large wrought-iron chandelier hanging beneath it and decorations laid out asymmetrically. Past the arch you reach Piazza Mincio, the heart of the district. Today its streets also hold several embassies, among them those of South Africa, Morocco and Estonia.
At the center is the Fountain of the Frogs, from 1924: four pairs of figures each hold up a shell with a frog, and eight more frogs crouch on the rim of the basin. It strongly recalls the Turtle Fountain in Piazza Mattei and is meant as a tribute to it.
Around it are the Villini delle Fate (Fairies' Villas), where Florence is celebrated with the words "Fiorenza bella" and with Dante and Petrarch, while the via Brenta side is dedicated to Venice, with a lion of Saint Mark. The Palazzo del Ragno (Spider Palace) celebrates work with a knight and the word "Labor."
Inside, the homes were ultramodern: Pompeian-style mosaics in the bathrooms, coffered ceilings, intercoms, garages. The district was left unfinished when Coppedè died in 1927, and was completed by Paolo Emilio André.
It is said that in 1965, after a night at the Piper, the Beatles took a dip in the fountain. It is only a legend, but the place has the charm of a film set: Dario Argento shot scenes of Inferno and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage here, and Richard Donner the start of The Omen.
In 2021, in House of Gucci, the stairs of the Palazzo degli Ambasciatori became Maurizio Gucci's home: an imaginary reconstruction, because the murder took place in Milan.
Don't miss
• The arch on via Tagliamento.
• The Fountain of the Frogs.
• The Villini delle Fate.
• The Palazzo del Ragno.
Did you know?
• The arch of the building at number 2 Piazza Mincio reproduces a set design from Cabiria, a silent film from 1914.
• The tenor Beniamino Gigli had his Roman home here.
It is not a real district, but a complex of 18 buildings and 27 small palaces and villas around Piazza Mincio, named after the architect who designed it, Gino Coppedè.
The project dates from 1915. The style is a cocktail: medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau elements, with echoes of ancient Rome. In 1917 the building commission asked Coppedè for a more Roman stamp, and he answered with imperial cornices, travertine and a great arch recalling the triumphal arches of the Forum.
The main entrance, from via Tagliamento, is precisely an arch joining two buildings, with a large wrought-iron chandelier hanging beneath it and decorations laid out asymmetrically. Past the arch you reach Piazza Mincio, the heart of the district. Today its streets also hold several embassies, among them those of South Africa, Morocco and Estonia.
At the center is the Fountain of the Frogs, from 1924: four pairs of figures each hold up a shell with a frog, and eight more frogs crouch on the rim of the basin. It strongly recalls the Turtle Fountain in Piazza Mattei and is meant as a tribute to it.
Around it are the Villini delle Fate (Fairies' Villas), where Florence is celebrated with the words "Fiorenza bella" and with Dante and Petrarch, while the via Brenta side is dedicated to Venice, with a lion of Saint Mark. The Palazzo del Ragno (Spider Palace) celebrates work with a knight and the word "Labor."
Inside, the homes were ultramodern: Pompeian-style mosaics in the bathrooms, coffered ceilings, intercoms, garages. The district was left unfinished when Coppedè died in 1927, and was completed by Paolo Emilio André.
It is said that in 1965, after a night at the Piper, the Beatles took a dip in the fountain. It is only a legend, but the place has the charm of a film set: Dario Argento shot scenes of Inferno and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage here, and Richard Donner the start of The Omen.
In 2021, in House of Gucci, the stairs of the Palazzo degli Ambasciatori became Maurizio Gucci's home: an imaginary reconstruction, because the murder took place in Milan.
Don't miss
• The arch on via Tagliamento.
• The Fountain of the Frogs.
• The Villini delle Fate.
• The Palazzo del Ragno.
Did you know?
• The arch of the building at number 2 Piazza Mincio reproduces a set design from Cabiria, a silent film from 1914.
• The tenor Beniamino Gigli had his Roman home here.