Piazza di Spagna, with the Trinità dei Monti, is one of the most famous squares of Rome.
This monumental stairway that consists of 135 steps was inaugurated by Pope Benedict XIII on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1725. It was realized thanks to funding of the French between 1721-1725. In those times it was linking the Bourbon Spanish embassy (that’s why the square was named in this way) to the Church of Trinità dei Monti.
It was designed by Alessandro Specchi and Francesco De Sanctis, after generations of long and heated discussions about how the steep slope on the side of Pincio could be urbanized to connect the square to the church. The final solution chosen was that of Francesco De Sanctis, that is a great staircase, decorated with many garden terraces, which in spring and summer is beautifully decorated with many flowers. The sumptuous, aristocratic staircase located at the apex of a long road that led to the Tiber was designed in that way more you approach more the stage effects increase. Typical of the great Baroque architecture was the creation of long, deep perspectives culminating with monumental backgrounds.
Last time the famous staircase was restored in 1995.
In the square there is the famous Fountain of Barcaccia that represents a little boat brought by the flood of the Tiber. La Barcaccia was sculpted by Pietro Bernini and his son, the most famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini and represents the early Barogue style. To be honest some historians of art are still discussing about the real author of the sculpture – some of them say that it was made only by Pietro Bernini but even in some books you can find the information Lorenzo was the only one author.
The right corner of the staircase is the home of English poet John Keats, who lived and died there in 1821. The house has been converted into a museum dedicated to his memory and to his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley who drown near Livorno. The house- museum is full of books and memorabilia of English Romanticism .
On the left there is Babington’s tea room founded in 1893.
[photo:courtesy of sabrina campagna]
Guides: rome
