The Roman power station along the Via Ostiense was opened in 1912 and closed its doors in 1963. The station had been named after the economist and socialist politician Giovanni Montemartini (1867-1913), who had strongly advocated bringing public services into the hands of the municipality (municipalizzazione in Italian). After the…
In a previous post, I have already explained that the Palazzo Nuovo was designed by Michelangelo but only built in the second half of the seventeenth century by father Girolamo and son Carlo Rainaldi. The palazzo currently serves as the left wing of the Capitoline Museums. The entrance to the…
The Capitoline Hill, usually simply called “the Capitol”, has been inhabited for at least 3,500 years. According to the authoritative Atlas of Ancient Rome, a stable settlement came into existence here during the Middle Bronze Age, around 1600 BCE.[1] When in about 750 BCE this settlement was merged with the…
It is no exaggeration to state that the Colonna family have left their mark on the history of Rome. Cardinal Jacopo Colonna (ca. 1250-1318) left his traces in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Oddone Colonna (1369-1431) was the only member of his family to reach the papacy, and Marcantonio…
It must be one of the most ignored signs in all of Rome: the pictogram in the vestibule of the church of Sant’Agnese on the Piazza Navona that announces the ban on photography inside the church. Not a single visitor respects this ban and it is not enforced by the…
We do not know when exactly the first church was built on this spot. This may have been as early as the twelfth century, but we do not have any certainty. What is certain is that there was a church here in the sixteenth century, which in 1585 was granted…
The history of the small church of Santa Maria ai Monti is closely connected to a medieval Marian icon that is said to perform miracles. The icon had been painted as a fresco on the wall of a convent of Poor Clares. When these Poor Clares moved out in 1308,…
The church of Santa Maria in Via is not a building that you visit for art with a capital A. It is a church where you hop in because it has a special history. The first church on this spot was built at an unspecified moment before the year 1000.…
The right wall of the nave of the Santa Maria Maggiore is a bit better off than the one on the left. Here 15 of the original 21 wall mosaics from the fifth century have been preserved. The mosaics tell stories from the Books of Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua.…
I am really fond of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The wall mosaics in the basilica with stories from the Old Testament are of unparalleled beauty. They date from the fifth century and once there were 42 of them. Unfortunately renovations and neglect have caused the loss…
What a disappointment! I had hoped to get onto the ancient Via Latina from the Via Demetriade, but the archaeological terrain with the remains of the road turned out to be closed off with a fence. And that fence happened to be locked. I therefore took a couple of photos…
In the summer of 2018 I made a highly enjoyable walk along the famous Via Appia and published an extensive report about it on this website. Part of my walk happened to be a small piece of the less well-known Via Latina. Back then I already decided that one day…
The Museo Nazionale Romano opened its doors as early as 1890. The immense collection of the museum is currently distributed across four locations: the Palazzo Massimo and Palazzo Altemps, which have been discussed previously, the Crypta Balbi and the Baths of Diocletianus. The baths can be considered the museum’s original…
The Palazzo Altemps was named after the German cardinal Mark Sittich von Hohenems (1533-1595). The cardinal’s mother Chiara de’ Medici was a sister of Pope Pius IV, who sat on Saint Peter’s throne between 1559 and 1565. Pius IV will chiefly be remembered as the pope who presided over the…
The nineteenth-century Palazzo Massimo is currently the main seat of the prestigious Museo Nazionale Romano, which is completely dedicated to Roman civilisation. The museum has much to offer to visitors, basically too much for a single visit. This means it is virtually impossible to write a post about the museum…
I cannot deny that I feel exceptionally privileged. In January of this year I had the former private chapel of the Pope all to myself. This chapel is one of the very few remnants of the old Lateran palace, which was demolished and replaced at the end of the sixteenth…
It is highly unlikely one will find hordes of tourists at the church of San Pancrazio. This is easily explained, as the church is very far from the historical centre of Rome and does not possess any great artistic treasures. What the church did have in terms of art was…
A beautiful location, a church stripped to the bone. I think that would be a good summary of the current state of the Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore on the Piazza Navona. The church was one of two Spanish national churches. In the past it was known as San Giacomo…
It is not easy to say when exactly modern Spain came into existence. Was it in 1469, when Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand II of Aragon? Or perhaps in 1479, when Ferdinand inherited the throne of Aragon from his father John II and the two spouses Isabella and Ferdinand jointly…
The name of the church of Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli is a bit of a jawbreaker. Moreover, it is far from clear what exactly the Magnanapoli part refers to. Although the name seems to be a reference to the Campanian city of Napoli, it may just as well be the…