Centro Storico - Rome - page 190

TOP SIGHT
PIAZZA NAVONA
With its ornate fountains, exuberant baroque palazzi (mansions) and pavement cafes,
Piazza Navona is central Rome's showcase square. Long a hub of local life, it hosted
Rome's main market for close on 300 years, and today attracts a colourful daily circus
of street performers, hawkers, artists, tourists, fortune-tellers and pigeons.
Stadio di Domiziano
Like many of the city's great landmarks, the piazza sits on the site of an ancient monument,
in this case the 1st-century-AD Stadio di Domiziano MAP GOOGLE MAP ( 06 06 08; Piazza Tor
Sanguigna 13; closed for restoration; Corso del Rinascimento) . This 30,000-seat stadium, remains
of which can be seen from the adjacent Piazza Tor Sanguigna, used to host games - the
name Navona is a corruption of the Greek word agon , meaning public games. Inevitably,
though, it fell into disrepair and it wasn't until the 15th century that the crumbling arena
was paved over and Rome's central market transferred here from Campidoglio.
Fountains
Of the piazza's three fountains, it's Gian Lorenzo Bernini's high-camp Fontana dei Quattro Fi-
umi MAP GOOGLE MAP (Fountain of the Four Rivers; ) that dominates. Commissioned by Pope
Innocent X and completed in 1651, it depicts the Nile, Ganges, Danube and Plate, repres-
enting the then-known four continents of the world, and is festooned with a palm tree, lion
and horse, and topped by an obelisk. Legend has it that the figure of the Nile is shielding
his eyes from the nearby Chiesa di Sant'Agnese in Agone designed by Bernini's hated
rival, Francesco Borromini. In truth, it simply indicates that the source of the Nile was un-
known at the time the fountain was created.
The Fontana del Moro MAP GOOGLE MAP at the southern end of the square was designed
by Giacomo della Porta in 1576. Bernini added the Moor holding a dolphin in the mid-17th
century, but the surrounding Tritons are 19th-century copies. The 19th-century Fontana del
Nettuno MAP GOOGLE MAP at the northern end of the piazza depicts Neptune fighting with
a sea monster, surrounded by sea nymphs.
Chiesa di Sant'Agnese in Agone