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| italian architecture |
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| Top Ten Rome Architecture |
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| Top Ten Italian Architecture |
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part of the essential architecture network |
| Top Ten Essential Architecture | top ten Rome buildings | |||||||||||||
| For a more complete list, see Rome | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Roman Colosseum | |||||||||||||
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The Colosseum or Coliseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium), is the largest amphitheatre built in the Roman empire. Originally capable of seating 50,000 spectators, it was once used for gladiatorial combat. It was built in the 70s AD by Jewish slaves captured at the end of the Great Jewish Revolt. |
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| 2 | Pantheon | |||||||||||||
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The Pantheon (Latin Pantheon, rarely Pantheum[1], from Greek Pantheion, meaning "Shrine of all the Gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome, but which has been a Christian church since the 7th century. It is the best-preserved of all Roman buildings and the oldest important building in the world with its original roof intact. It has been in continuous use throughout its history. Although the identity of the Pantheon's primary architect remains uncertain, it is largely assigned to Apollodorus of Damascus. |
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| 3 | St. Peter's of Rome | |||||||||||||
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The Basilica of Saint Peter, officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and colloquially called Saint Peter's Basilica, ranks second among the four major basilicas of Rome (San Giovanni in Laterano, San Pietro, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Paulo) and its Vatican City enclave. Possibly the largest church in Christianity, it covers an area of 5.7 acres (23,000 m²) and has a capacity of over 60,000 people. One of the holiest sites of Christendom, it is traditionally the burial site of basilica namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, first Bishop of Antioch, and later first Bishop of Rome. Although the New Testament does not mention Peter either in Rome, or martyred there, a very old tradition holds that his tomb is below the baldachino and altar; for this reason, many Popes, starting with the first ones, have been buried there. Construction on the current basilica began on April 18, 1506 and was completed in 1626, and was built over the Constantinian basilica. |
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| 4 | Trevi Fountain | |||||||||||||
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The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi)[1] is the largest — standing 25.9 meters (85 feet) high and 19.8 meters (65 feet) wide — and most ambitious of the Baroque fountains of Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's facade). Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts- in 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival. |
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| 5 | Arch of Titus | |||||||||||||
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The Arch of Titus is a triumphal arch with a single arched opening, located on the Via Sacra just to the south-east of the Forum in Rome. It was constructed shortly after the death of the emperor Titus (born AD 41, emperor 79-81). The arch commemorates Titus' capture and sack of Jerusalem in 70, which effectively terminated the Jewish War which had begun in 66 (the Romans did not achieve complete victory until the fall of Masada in 73). |
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| 6 | Mausoleum of Hadrian | |||||||||||||
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The Castel Sant'Angelo is towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building spent over a thousand years as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. |
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| 7 | Piazza Navona | |||||||||||||
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Piazza Navona is a square in Rome. The piazza follows the plan of an ancient Roman circus, the 1st century Stadium of Domitian, where the Romans came to watch the agones ("games"): today's name stems from the corruption of the latter in in agone, then nagone and navona, which actually means "big ship" in Italian. Defined as a square in the last years of 15th century, when the city market was transferred here from the Campidoglio, Piazza Navona is now the pride of Baroque Rome. It has sculptural and architectural creations: by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers, 1651) in the center; by Francesco Borromini and Girolamo Rainaldi, the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone; and by Pietro da Cortona, who painted the gallery in the Pamphilj palace. |
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| 8 | Piazza di Spagna | |||||||||||||
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The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna) is a set of stairs in Rome, ramping a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, with the church Trinità dei Monti, above. The monumental stairway, of 138 steps, was built with French diplomat Stefano Gueffier’s funds (20,000 scudi) in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish embassy to the Holy See, today still located in the piazza below, with the Trinità dei Monti church above. |
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| 9 | S. Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane | |||||||||||||
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San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is a church (1638-41) in Rome, designed by Francesco Borromini (1599-1677), one of the most notable example of Baroque architecture. The tight geometric complexity of interlocking ovals and circles creates spaciousness in the small corner church, which stands a stone's throw from the Palazzo Barberini (windows designed by Borromini) and piazza. It is also down the street from rival Gian Lorenzo Bernini's oval Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. The concave convex facade of San Carlo undulates in a non-classic function. Tall corinthian columns interrupt entablatures. Idiosyncratic winged hemi-cherubim are used to frame niches of statues, the main one of Saint Charles Borromeo by Antonio Raggi. On the sides are statues of St. John of Matha and St. Felix of Valois, the founders of the Trinitarian Order. The corner fountain is a depiction of recumbent Neptune. The dome of the church has a complex patterns of coffers of crosses, ovals, and hexagons. The floor plan is a heady intersection of ovals. |
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| 10 | The Roman Forum | |||||||||||||
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The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum, although the Romans called it more often the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. Here the communal hearth was located. Sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level of the forum in early Republican times. Originally it had been marshy ground, which was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Its final travertine paving, still to be seen, dates from the reign of Augustus. |
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