Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo (ID 115), one of the most famous squares in Rome, assumed its current shape in the second decade of the 1800s, when the architect Valadier was able to complete the project presented years earlier and give the square its elliptical shape with the two exedras on the sides, decorated with statues and fountains. The square is at the apex of a triangle from which the "trident" branches off, consisting of Via del Babuino, Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta. The Porta del Popolo or Porta Flaminia also stands there. The external facade started by Michelangelo and finished by Baccio Bigio, has four columns from St. Peter's. The internal one is the work of Bernini, carried out to welcome the Queen of Sweden in 1655. At the center of the square is the Egyptian-style marble and travertine Fountain of the Lions (ID 4), created to accompany the precious Flaminian Obelisk, the first to arrive in Rome. 34 meters high from the base, it was decorated by order of the Pharaohs Seti and Ramses II and was placed in this square to underline its importance. Three churches of great historical and artistic value overlook the square: the first, the Renaissance Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo (ID 3267) is the oldest of the three, wanted like the square by Pope Paschal II and which was erected in the XI century on the Tomb of the Domizi (a family to which Nero also belonged who was buried there). The other two churches are the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto (ID 236), from 1675 and the Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (ID 328) from 1678. They are called "twins" even if they are not, as apparently made so by the genius by Rainaldi, Bernini and Carlo Fontana, to respect the symmetry of the square with the spaces available.