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TUESDAY 4th October 2005
ROME
The “Castel Sant’Angelo” guarded the Vatican for hundreds of years, and overlooks one of Rome’s most beautiful bridges - the Ponte Sant’Angelo, seen on the right of the photo with its statues of graceful angels designed by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598 - 1680). The casle was built as a mausoleum for the emperer Hadrian in AD 135. By the 6th century it had been transformed into a fortress, and remained the military stronghold of Rome and a refuge of popes for almost 1000 years. Its name is due to a legend that when Pope Gregory the Great passed it by in 590 during the plague, he had a vision of an angel sheathing its sword on the top of the ramparts. His interpretation that this signalled the end of the plague proved timely and a chapel was built where he saw the angel.
This street corner statue caught Jackie’s eye.
The massive St. Peter’s was dedicated in 1626, with Bramante designing the original groundplan, later modified by Michelangelo. Regrettably the Vatican queues were unusually long that day, so visits inside by the tour group were abandoned.
The Colosseum was begun by the emperor Vespasian in AD 72, and was inaugurated by Titus eight years later. It could contain 50000 spectators - (note that Watford’s population in 2004 had 51000 between 16 and pensionable age).The Roman Colosseum served as a fortress during the 13th century and then as a quarry from which materials were filched to build sumptuous Renaissance churches and palaces. Finally it was declared sacred by the popes, in memory of the many Christians believed to be martyred there.
The “Roman Forum” was the civic heart of Republican Rome, the austere Rome that preceded the hedonistic society that grew up under the emperors between the 1st and 4th centuries AD. Today it seems no more than a baffling series of ruins, marble fragments, isolated columns, a few worn arches, and occasional paving stones. Yet it was once filled with stately and extravagant buildings (sculptural detail) and crowded with people from all corners of the world. What you see are the ruins not of one period but of almost 900 years, from about 500 BC to AD 400. Two buildings identified are:- Arch of Titus & Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.
The “Trevi Fountain”, featured in the 1954 film “Three coins in the Fountain”, is built on the site of an existing water outlet from the Roman aqueduct of the Acqua Vergine. The fountain project, first given to Bernini, was completed by Nicola Salvi a century later between 1730 and 1760. The fountain is architecturally linked to the palace behind.
With so many famous buildings in Rome, this one is anonymous, but is characteristic of so many to be seen in the City.
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