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CAMPIDOGLIO

CAMPIDOGLIO SQUARE and PALAZZO SENATORIO

"THE HISTORY"


MARCO AURELIO'S ESTATUE

Campidoglio hill is probably the older sacre place of Rome as here there was the Jove's templum, center of antique Rome, linked to the Roman Forum through a small path as nowadays is. Some parts of this templum are still visible and archeologists assumed that it should have been at least as big as the Pantheon. For centuries Capitolium has been the center of the Roman power becoming the word par excellence to define the most important city of a state that is capital. Here the fathers of the Roman monarchy and of the following Republic used to come for discussing of projects of wars and new laws. The Palazzo Senatorio that arises in front of the Cordonata stair was once the Senatus seat as well as today is the town council seat. Here Francesco Petrarca received the laurel in 1250 for his poetry and here Michelangelo shown his architectural genius when Pope Paolo III Farnese asked to him a new project in occasion of the visit of emperor Carlo V in 1536. The sacre place, once center of the ancient Rome, was in that time in ashamed conditions.


CAMPIDOGLIO SQUARE

"THE PROJECT"


CAMPIDOGLIO SQUARE

Michelangelo suggested to build the beautiful Cordonata Stair leading to the square and a third Palace, Palazzo Nuovo, to enclose the space of the square between three magnificent buildings. The floor of the square was also drawn by Michelangelo and has a prevailing role in its prospectical element. In the center it was placed the Emperor Marco Aurelio's equestrian estatue now kept inside the Palazzo Nuovo and substituted with a copy visible today. The entire square is oriented toward San Pietro's Square to testify a link between religious and legislative powers. Many estatues embellish the area such as the ones of Castore and Polluce or the Cola di Rienzo's estatue placed at the bottom of the Cordonata.
The project was finished only after Michelangelo's death but following his original drawnings. Nowadays, Palazzo Nuovo and Palazzo dei Conservatori host the Musei Capitolini, the first public museum of the history opened in 1734, a real must of every visit to Rome. Close to Campidoglio is possible to visit several places of interest such as the adjoining Santa Maria in Aracoeli Church and its stair built in 1348, Palazzo Venezia Museum that keeps an important paintings collection, Vittorio Emanuele's Monument, and the Rupe Tarpea where all traitors were put to death by throwing them into the precipice.

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