piazza navona
piazza navona
Piazza Navona
ANCIENT STADIUM SITE
Welcome to this vibrant square at the heart of Rome’s old town! Built on the site of an ancient stadium, it’s home to three stunning fountains and surrounded by restaurants, churches and the Museo di Roma.
My Rating:
The positives:
There’s plenty to explore on and around this lovely, lively square.
The negatives:
You could say that it’s become a bit too touristy around here. The regular vendors and restaurants are geared towards visitors who are only going to be here once.
Top Tip:
Make sure you visit the Stadium of Domitian directly beneath Piazza Navona!
Last Modified: 12.03.2024 | Céline
Piazza Navona
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There are a few exciting attractions in Rome that won’t cost you a cent to explore.
And Piazza Navona is one of them!
Take a look at some of the others in this short video.
Have fun and enjoy Rome!
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The details
at a glance
Piazza Navona
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What is there
to see?
Piazza Navona is a busy, buzzing square at the heart of Rome’s old town. Head here for restaurants, ice-cream parlours, artists and plenty of sights to admire.
Besides the stadium the square is built on, the main attraction is Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers or Fiumi Fountain).
But I’m going to tell you more about everything you can explore around, on and under the square right here…
The fountains
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The churches
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The museums
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A bit of history
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Piazza Navona
the fountains
Fountain of the Four Rivers
Like I said before, the most famous fountain on the square is the Fountain of the Four Rivers or Fiumi Fountain. It’s impossible to miss it given that it’s right in the middle and has a giant Roman obelisk as its centrepiece.
That’s the Obelisco Agonale, which measures in at 16.54 metres and was moved to its current position back in 1649 in honour of Pope Innocent X.
The Pope broke with tradition and had the obelisk topped with a dove holding an olive branch instead of a cross to add a symbol of Christianity to the pagan monument.
But that’s not the star of the show here. Just look at the incredible figures created by Bernini between 1648 and 1651. Four rivers are personified as river gods, with the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, the Nile representing Africa and the Río de la Plata representing South America.
The four river gods sit on the four corners of a craggy rock in the middle of an oval-shaped fountain. And they’re accompanied by all kinds of animals and mythical creatures. See if you can spot the lion, horse, dolphin, crocodile, sea serpent and dragon. The four gods are more or less naked, covered only by loose pieces of material. Some of them seem calm, while others are gesticulating wildly.
Fountain of Neptune
The Fountain of Neptune is at the northern end of the square. So it’ll be the first thing you see if you head here from the Spanish Steps.
Want to know a fun fact? The fountain didn’t always look like it does now. Giacomo della Porta designed the base back in 1574, but the figures weren’t added until 1873.
Antonio della Bitta’s Neptune is the main sculpture. You can see him using a spear to fight off the octopus wrapping itself around him. He’s surrounded by plenty of other mythical creatures, including hippocamps with the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish (you can see more of these on the fountain in the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona). Nymphs are fighting off more octopuses, and mascarons, which are frightening faces often used as decorative ornaments. Every one of them was created by Gregorio Zappalà.
Fontana del Moro
Heading from the Museo di Roma or Corso Vittorio Emanuele II shopping street, you’ll see this fountain first. It’s the southern counterpart to the Neptune Fountain.
But what exactly is this fountain showing us?
The name is perhaps a little archaic – and maybe even derogatory – now in English: Fountain of the Moor. The Moor is the Ethiopian man at the centre of the fountain.
Giacomo della Porta designed this fountain dating back to 1575 too – and actually added some sculptures this time. The decorative elements were originally limited to Tritons and mascarons, however, until Bernini worked his magic on the fountain in 1655. Pope Innocent X commissioned the update, which involved an Ethiopian man wrestling with a dolphin being added as the central sculpture. He is surrounded by creatures who are half-man, half-fish and are blowing into shells that have jets of water spraying out of them.
The sculptures you see today may only be copies, but you can find the originals in the Villa Borghese park.
Piazza Navona
the churches
Sant’Agnese in Agone
You can’t really miss this striking church, which is one of the most famous sights on the square. Construction work on this baroque building started in 1652, but other church buildings had stood on this site long before that. It’s actually believed that the original was there all the way back in the 8th century.
It was Pope Innocent X who commissioned the major project to construct the church as we know it. Under his instruction, the medieval structure was to give way to a uniform baroque design. As a member of the Pamphili family, the Pope wanted the new church to provide a papal tomb next door to the family home. Work began in 1652, but the designs by the original architect, Girolamo Rainaldi (1570–1655), were very different to the church that stands to this day.
Construction came to a halt in 1653. There was a change of architect and the building work resumed under Francesco Borromini in August 1653.
Borromini updated the designs, making the entrance smaller and placing the dome on a cylindrical tambour to lift it up a little higher.
Pope Innocent X died in 1655 and architect Carlo Rainaldi took over the project until its completion in 1672. In 1677, Bernini was given the job of changing the façade.
The church is named after the Early Christian Saint Agnes of Rome. Legend has it that she was put on show naked on the spot in the Stadium of Domitian where the church now stands. It is said that a miracle happened and her hair grew suddenly to cover her body at that very moment…
Other churches
Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore is another church on Piazza Navona, which was declared to be a national church of the Kingdom of Spain in Rome back in 1506.
You’ll be able to spot probably another ten churches around and about the square. Let me say something quickly about two of them… The Basilica di Sant’Agostino is a cute little church with works by Raphael and Caravaggio inside.
And the Chiostro del Bramante doubles up as the venue for temporary art exhibitions these days.
piazza navona
the museums
Museo di Roma
The Museo di Roma is on the southern side of Piazza Navona. It’s home to paintings, sculptures and other historical artefacts with ties to Rome. Alongside countless artistic representations of the city, regular exhibitions are held at the museum, and some of them have international appeal.
Stadium of Domitian
What I’m about to say might come as a bit of a surprise to some of you… You see, Piazza Navona hasn’t always just been a square. Around 2000 years ago, at the height of the Roman Empire, an athletics stadium with space for 30,000 spectators stood on this very spot. It was called the Stadium of Domitian. Can you believe it?! It gets even better than that… You can actually go underground to visit that stadium to this day. Well, what’s left of it anyway. Fancy visiting the archaeological site? It might be hard to spot it, but the entrance is at the northern end of the square.
piazza navona
a bit of History
The history of this square goes all the way back to ancient times! Caesar set up a temporary stadium for Greek-inspired games back in the 46th century B.C.
And the stadium was officially commissioned by Emperor Domitian in the 85th century A.D. It was 275 metres long and 106 metres wide, with the capacity for 30,000 spectators.
Unlike the Colosseum, this arena was reserved for athletic competitions – without the bloodshed.
As I already mentioned, you can actually still visit what’s left of the stadium (also known as Circus Agonalis) underneath Piazza Navona.
In the Middle Ages, the square started to be put to use more and more by the locals. The original Sant’Agnese in Agone church was built on the spot where it is believed that St Agnes was killed, while the stadium seating was gradually integrated into people’s homes. The square stood strong throughout, continuing to provide a venue for horse racing.
The piazza in its modern form was shaped during the baroque period. Architect Francesco Borromini was involved in several development projects around its edges. He was responsible for extending the ancient Aqua Virgo aqueduct so that Bernini could create his Fiumi Fountain in the middle of the square in 1649. The obelisk at its centre was discovered in the Circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia Antica.
The House of Pamphili had close ties to the piazza, which is also home to the Palazzo Pamphili (the palace that’s not to be confused with the Doria Pamphili Gallery). The palace next door to the Sant’Agnese in Agone church has been home to the Brazilian Embassy since 1920. The only way to explore the palace is to book onto a guided tour (the same goes for the French Embassy in the Palazzo Farnese).
Text and image rights: © Céline Mülich, 2016 – 2024
