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Piazza Navona Of Rome

 

One of Rome's most spectacular squares and renowned for its admirable work of art, La Fontana di Quattro Flumi — the fountain of four rivers, Piazza Navona is a place never to be forgotten during a tour of Rome. The piazza is home to several masterpieces of Baroque art as the one mentioned above as well as the other two fountains lying to its north and south and of course the magnificent church of St Agnes. 

Location and the Derivation of its Name

Situated exactly at the site of the ancient Domitian Stadium or the Circus Agonalis or Competition Arena, it was officially named Piazza Navona in the 15th century. Since those days it has been an important market place of the city and the site where various festivals took place. The circus was built by the Roman emperor Domitian in 85 A.D. for athletic competitions called agones and was of the shape of a rectangle with its northern side being curved. It could seat up to 30000 spectators.

It is thought that the name of the present square is derived from the name of the circus upon whose location it now stands. Hence the word has changed from its previous form 'Agonalis” through “In Agone” and “Navone” to the present "Navona".


Navona Square of Rome
A Brief  History

In the 17th century A.D., Pope Innocent the 10th ordered Gian Lorenzo Bernini to erect a large fountain in the centre of the square. The fountain of Four Rivers (Fontana Del Quattro Flumi), completed in 1652, represents four great rivers of four different continents of the world - the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube, and Rio Dela Platta — by four white marble statues, each having a height of 5 meters. To the north of this fountain lies Fontana De Nettune or the Neptune Fountain with a statue of Neptune fighting an octopus. This fountain was shaped in the late 16th century, but was added to the fountain mentioned earlier in 1878. To the south of Fontana Del Quattro Flumi is Fontana Del Moro or the Moor’s Fountain. The fountain encircles a huge statue that depicts a Moore with a large fish in his hands.

Another remarkable building surrounding the square is the magnificent church of St Agnes in Agone. It is named after a young Christian girl of a noble family who is said to have been at the Circus Agonalis. Her crime was that she had refused the love of the son of the Roman prefect.

A number of restaurants and cafeterias around the square offer tourists the opportunities to sip a cup of coffee or tea or watch the amusing shows performed by amateur artists or street performers

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