It is probably the most spectacular square in Rome. Magnificent, baroque, beautiful ... It is always abuzz with people, as tourists constantly visit it. And it is not strange, given its beauty.
Piazza Navona is one of the most important Baroque works in the city. It is surrounded by ocher-colored buildings and stately architecture, and bounded by three awesome fonts. Once you have visited it, you will surely want to return to it before leaving the city. And it is that this place catches the visitor from the first moment.
Nerve center
The square has an elliptical shape, just as the stadium and the circus built by Emperor Domitian were in the place there by the year 86. At that time it was known as Circus Agonalis, a name that in the Middle Ages derived in agone and then to n’agone until reaching the current Navona.
In the western part of the square stands the church Sant’Agnese in Agone, one of whose architects was Borromini. One of his greatest rivals, the genius of the Baroque Gian Lorenzo Bernini was in charge of creating the central fountain of the square, the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), in 1648. Its four main figures represent the four rivers of paradise: the Nile, the Ganges, the Rio de la Plata and the Danube, and also to the four known limits of the world: Africa, Asia , Europe and America. A marvel.
But you should not miss the other two fountains in the square: on the north side the Neptune Fountain, which represents the sea god fighting with a snake, and in the southern part, the Fontana del Moroby Giacomo della Porta.
Piazza Navona is one of many places in Rome that is always full of people. There, tourists mix with the artists, vendors, and passers-by who travel through it. And it is that having a coffee sitting on one of the terraces of the premises of the square It is a real luxury, not cheap, by the way. Strolling through the square when night has fallen is delicious, although if you do, you will find it as active and busy as during the day.
Walking itinerary Piazza Navona | Rome (April 2024)
- fountains, squares, Rome
- 1,230
