Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona stretches through Rome as a long Baroque square, shaped by the outline of an ancient stadium. The open space follows Domitian’s stadium, built in 86 AD for athletic contests and horse races.

The stadium’s remains lie five to six metres beneath the present street level. Parts appear beneath a modern building on Piazza di Tor Sanguigna and beneath Sant’Agnese in Agone. Seventeenth-century architects Carlo and Girolamo Rainaldi began the church, while Borromini transformed its animated façade. Palazzo Pamphilj stands beside it, and the Brazilian embassy has occupied the building since 1960. Public celebrations, races and markets once filled the square, which was partly flooded during August weekends until the mid-nineteenth century.

Three fountains organise the view, with Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi at the centre. Travertine rock, four river figures and a granite obelisk create its theatrical form. The Danube, Ganges, Nile and Río de la Plata represent Europe, Asia, Africa and America. A bronze dove carrying an olive branch crowns the obelisk, echoing the papal emblem above the rock. Today, street artists, portraitists and passers-by animate the space above the buried racing track.