Walk 4.

Santa Sabina to the
Theatre of Marcellus

A two to three hour walk from the Aventine Hill to the Ghetto

 

Part 1. Santa Sabina to the Tiber

Click the map to see locations.

1. Start at the picturesque Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta on the Aventine Hill, reached by Via Santa Sabina and best climbed by taxi.

 

The site on the Aventine Hill, overlooking the Tiber and across the city, was already a fortified Benedictine monastery in the 10th.C. The monastery passed to the crusading Knights Templars and after the destruction of their order, to the Knights Hospitallers, predecessors of the present Order of Malta.

 

Here is the Villa del Priorato di Malta, home of the Catholic Military Order of Malta.

 

The building and grounds have been granted extraterritorial status, so are sovereign territory outside Italian jurisdiction. The Villa is best known for a small keyhole in the arched entrance doorway, through which the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica can be seen at the end of a garden framed in clipped cypress trees. (Don’t be fooled by the apparent size of St Peter's … it is small and a long way away. Below is a picture taken from the next door garden.) You won’t miss the keyhole gate as it will usually have a queue of tourists lined up to take their turn at quickly squinting a peek, then taking an out-of-focus photo through the keyhole.

 

I, of course, did the same … my result (left) and the actual view (right).

Apart from a nicely framed view of St Peter's, the excitement comes from looking through the sovereign territory of Malta, seeing buildings in Italy, then seeing St Peter's in The Vatican…. three countries at once!

[hoo-ray!].

 

 

2. Next door is the Basilica of Saint Bonifacio and Alessio.

Founded between the 3rd and 4th centuries, it was restored in 1216 by Pope Honorius III and several times since. Some small columns of the original building survive embedded in the rear wall. Note this church faces North-South, not East-West as is the norm but not the rule.

The main altar contains relics of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

 

Saint Boniface of Tarsus was, according to legend, executed for being a Christian in the year 307, having traveled wide to bring back to his mistress Aglaida, relics of the martyrs. He apparently "lived in debauchery"  with his mistress (who was also executed) and has over time been relegated from a venerated saint to being completely removed by Pope Paul IV in 1969.

 

Alessio (Alexis) was allegedly the son of a Roman Senator, who as a teenager left home to escape consummating an arranged marriage, then spent 17 years in wandering in humility as a destitute beggar. He returned to live unrecognised by his parents in a toolshed under a wooden exterior staircase at the family home near or under the present church. He died before they did and they found a paper revealing his identity on his body.

 

The shrine to the left inside the church entrance has his statue under the preserved staircase.

 

3. Next church along is what you have really come up here to see… the ancient Basilica Santa Sabina, perhaps the best example of an early Christian church in Rome.

Sabina was a rich matron who lived in the 4th.C., beheaded under the Emperor Vespasian, (or perhaps Hadrian), because she had been converted to Christianity by her servant Seraphia, who was stoned to death for her trouble. Both Sabina and Seraphia were later declared Catholic saints. Thee basilica was built in 425 CE under Pope Celestine I, precisely where the house of the martyr stood. As was the custom, the building was constructed with re-used materials, including 24 marble columns from the nearby temple of Juno Regina.

 

Building works in the church over the centuries were numerous and various: Mid 16th.C. it was incorporated into the fort built by the Crescenzi family, then in the late 1500s to the mid 1600s, the interior was restored in full baroque style by Borromini among others. After 1870, when the monasteries were suppressed, the church was transformed into a quarantine station for sailors and later became the first steam laundry in Rome!

 

It was from here that in 590 CE a procession began, led by Pope Gregory the Great, to ward off a terrible plague afflicting Rome. It ceased when the Archangel Michael appeared on the Mausoleum of Hadrian, which since then has been called Castel Sant'Angelo.

 

In the 10th.C. the basilica was combined with the fortress of the emperor Albericus II but in the following century the church passed to the Savelli family. In 1222, Santa Sabina was given to the newly-created Dominican Order, in whose care it remains today. The cell of St. Dominic is still preserved inside the church, transformed into a chapel.

 

One of the stories of Saint Dominic concerns a black stone (in reality a balance weight from Roman times) said to have been thrown by the devil at the praying saint. The devil missed and the stone is now mounted on a column to the left of the entrance.

 

In 1287 the Conclave that was to elect the successor of Pope Honorius IV met at Santa Sabina, but a malaria epidemic decimated the cardinals. The survivors, not caring about the vacant papal seat, all fled, except for Girolamo Masci, was then elected pope Nicholas IV, a rich reward for being unperturbed in the face of danger!

 

A major remodeling of the interior in the Renaissance style took place under Pope Sixtus V (1585-90), which was reversed in a restoration of 1914-19. The later work included reconstructing all the original windows and piecing together the marble chancel furniture from fragments found in the pavement.   Another survivor of the original church is a 5th.C. dedicatory mosaic inscription along the rear wall. The lengthy Latin text, written in gold on a blue background, is flanked by two female figures who personify the Church of the Jews and the Church of the Gentiles.

 

Outside and to the left of the entrance, are the original cypress wood doors, dating from the 5th.C.  Only 18 of the original 28 panels have survived after restoration in 1836, representing scenes from the New and Old Testaments, not without some retouching … in the panel depicting Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea, the face of the Pharaoh has been modified, taking on a strong resemblance to Napoleon!

 

However of far more importance is the panel at the top left. Here is what is believed to be the earliest representation of the crucifixion yet discovered.

 

Behind the wall opposite the doors is a small church garden. Legend has it that Spanish St. Dominic gave the garden its first orange tree. Having transported the sapling from Spain, he planted it close to the cloisters where it flourished. Supposedly St. Catherine of Siena picked its oranges and made candied fruit, which she gave to Pope Urban VI. Miraculously, a younger tree which continues to bear fruit, grew on its remains, visible through a "porthole" in the wall.

 

Walk through the gate in the wall next to the church to ...

 

4. The beautiful Giardino degli Aranci (Garden of Oranges), originally a garden of the church of Santa Sabina. The garden provides a fabulous view across the rooftops of Rome, with St Peter's in the distance and has been used as a backdrop in numerous Italian films.

 

Return to the main road and turn left, following the old walls.

 

5. Just past the gardens, look left down a narrow cobbled lane Clivo di Rocca Savella.

 

This medieval road, built over an earlier Roman road, follows the ancient walls of the monastery, winding its way down to the river.

 

Continue along the road another 200 metres and on your right, behind iron railings, is the Rose Garden. You should be able to enter and walk through to the busy road beyond, the Via Circo Massimo. There are precious few pedestrian crossings in this area and this is one road that you will have to take your chances and find a way across to the look-out over the park of the Circo Massimo and the Palatine Hill beyond.

 

​6. The Circo Massimo and the Palatine Hill. Time to consult your guidebooks for info here... plenty to see and much, much more to be imagined.

 

7. Continuing downhill on the Via Circo Massimo, you will emerge onto the busy Via Santa Maria in Cosmadin.

 

 

Part 2. The Tiber to the Theatre of Marcellus

 

8. The area in front of you, stretching along the river to the Theatre of Marcellus and on your right to the Palatine Hill, originally a field of flat and marshy ground, was the Roman Velabrum, or vegetable and cattle markets. There was a trading post here long before Rome was established. The area has a special place in the legendary history of Rome as well, as the legend of Rome claims that it was here that Romulus and Remus came ashore after being abandoned in a basket on the river as babies. The famous she-wolf then adopted them. A stream ran down from the Forum to the river. This was bricked over in the 5th.C. BCE, with tunnels large enough to drive a chariot through and still serves as a sewer line. But I ask you … what have the Romans ever done for us?

 

The markets were well sited between the river where most of the produce arrived into Rome and the shops of the Imperial Forum past the Capitol and Palatine hills. This was a thriving location for shops, fairs and storage areas right through the ages, in fact up to the 1930’s when Fascist-era excavations and ‘clean-ups’ relocated much of the local population and removed much of the colour. Note the long low Mussolini built offices stretching along Via Luigi Petroselli, itself a fascist era project, towards the Temple of Marcellus. However, a careful look reveals many relics of the original buildings of the area.

 

In Roman times, as the markets grew in importance, the Velabrum became an area where activities, either by law or tradition, could not take place within city limits. Foreign ambassadors and dignitaries were required to wait here in the temples, as they were barred form entering the city before having their credentials accepted. Victorious generals, fresh from battles on foreign lands, waited here to learn if their request for a ‘triumph’ had been granted. No active soldier, unless part of the elite military guard, could enter the city without permission.

 

History also records that human sacrifice was, if not common, at least practiced occasionally here.  A prophesy that “Greeks and Gauls will one day possess Rome” was fulfilled instead by burying some unfortunate Greek and Gaulic victims in the ‘Roman soil’. Every 15th of May, to appease the river god Tibernius, twenty-four 60 year olds were thrown off the bridge that crossed the Tiber here … if they couldn’t swim, bad luck.

 

Walk north, crossing the Via della Greca ...

 

9. On the right you will find the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmadin.  You will know you have found it because  tourists will be queueing to have a picture taken with their hands in the mouth of the Bocca della Veritas (Mouth of Truth) in the church portico. Apparently this is an important destination for tour companies that promote “Roman Holiday” tours, with stops at all the sites featured in the 1953 film with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

 

The legend is that the mouth would bite anyone who put their hand into it and lies. It was even used as a lie detector in medieval trials, especially of adulteresses. It is actually either an ancient fountainhead or a manhole cover … take your choice. (You also might have noticed another outside Santa Sabina, or another in the National Museum in Trastevere.)

 

This is a very ancient church, looking ancient both inside and out due to having been restored to its medieval state in the late 1800’s. The church was built in the 6th.C. on the site of an old food distribution building. The porch is 12th.C., the doors 11th.C., and the bell tower 13th.C.. Most of the interior is 8th.C., except for the 11th-13th.C liturgical furniture.  All the columns are roman except for their 12th.C. capitals. In a recess of the gift shop there is a very rare fragment of a mosaic from the original Church of St Peter's. In the crypt is a small temple dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian.

 

Leaving the church, continue along to the right and walk to the stone archway ...

 

10. The massive travertine cube of the Arch of Janus.  Many incorrectly attribute this as a celebration arch dedicated to the god Janus. In fact a ‘janus’ was a four way covered passage, a meeting point for travelers and merchants in the marketplace, which this is. It was built under Constantine in the 4th.C.

 

All the decorative marble exterior was removed in the middle ages to provide local building material. The niches probably held statues. It remains the only ancient monument in the area not to have been restored.

 

The area around the arch remains fenced off following a car bomb explosion in the square behind, set off in 1993 by the Sicilian Mafia in protest at new anti-mafia regulations.(See 12. below)

 

Take the steps to the left and walk along to the rear of the Arch.

 

11. Directly behind the arch and to the left, leaning up against the side of the church, is the Arch of the Moneychangers,  built in 264 CE by their association and the cattle merchants. This is believed to be an ornamental entrance to the market from a long vanished side street. Much of the decorative figure-work has been erased or worn away, but it mostly refers to “Bassianus Marcus Aurelius Antonius”, better known to us as Caracalla. The holes in the sides ware apparently made by treasure hunters who believed that within the arch was hidden the gold of the moneychangers.

 

12. Beside the arch is the church of Saint George in Velabro. Founded in the 6th or 7th.C., St George was a legendary roman soldier famous for slaying a dragon.

 

The church interior, while appearing medieval, is actually a rendition in 1923 by Mussolini’s main architect Munoz of what a Romanesque interior should look like with a fascist interpretation. The interior features columns from ancient roman buildings with 7th.C. capitals.

 

Pope Zachary (741–752), who was of Greek origin, moved the relics of St. George here, meaning that this saint had a church dedicated in the West well before the spreading of his worship with the return of the Crusaders from the East. The relics of St. George are kept under the main altar, however the Vatican has questioned whether he ever existed. Incidentally St. George is not only just the patron saint of England but also Genoa, Venice, Barcelona, Portugal, Lithuania, Georgia, the Crusaders and the Boy Scouts. Really.

The ceiling of the apse was painted in 1300 by Pietro Cavallini, Rome's best-known artist of the time. (Note … a must see are Cavallini’s multi-coloured winged angels in the convent of the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.)  If the interior feels a little ‘wonky’, that’s because it is. The rear wall is 2 metres wider than at the altar, with the right hand arcade straight and the left narrowing.

 

It was outside this church that in 1993, the Sicilian mafia set off a bomb, one of three in Rome that day that killed six people. It was seen at the time to be a symbolic attack on Rome (i.e. at the birthplace of Romulus and Remus) in retaliation for new laws aimed at suppressing organized crime. Both the laws and the attempt to stop them have worked well, haven’t they.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is now time for a well earned break.

 

At the top end of the square of St. George's church is a bar "Anima mundi" ("sole of the world", a reference to the square being regarded as the founding site of the Romulus and Remus legend) that serves excellent coffee, even more excellent beer and if you are hungry, great hamburgers.... not really Roman food I know, but if you are going to go crazy, here is a good spot. (2025 ... closed, I fear a victim of covid.)

 

Head back past the Arch of Janus and brave the traffic to cross the main road to the garden.

 

13.  Here you will find the round Temple of Hercules and the square Temple of Portunis. Both now contain small churches but these are rarely used. The Temple of Hercules used to be called the Temple of Vesta because it looked like the one in the Forum, but that was wrong. This temple, built in the 2nd.C. BCE, was the first marble temple in Rome (all previously in tufa), the stone imported at huge expense from Athens and is one of Rome’s few round temples. Hercules was considered a protector of butchers, hence its proximity to the cattle market. The roof is modern and a marble frieze over the columns is missing, giving the temple a disturbing out-of-proportion look. According to legend, neither flies nor dogs will enter this temple. Probably has something to do with the heavily locked door.

 

14. Just along is the Temple of Portunis, god of harbours, but also grain and livestock. Built between 120-80 BCE and converted to a church in 874 dedicated to Saint Mary of Egypt, it features a mixture of columns… some marble, some tufa. The Ionic capitals and fine symmetry have made this temple the subject of many engravings.

 

Time to brave the traffic again, but this time across the Lungetevere towards the river.

 

15.  To the right of the busy Ponte Palatino is the Ponte Rotto, or “broken bridge”. This was originally the Ponte Aemilius, Rome’s oldest stone bridge, built in the 2nd.C. BCE. The Tiber’s current is so strong here that the bridge has twice collapsed and been rebuilt, the last time in 1568. It then fell again in 1598 and has remained ‘broken’ since. Cross to the left side of the Ponte Palatino to get a view under the bank of the river to the exit of the Cloaca Maxima, the 5th.C. BCE sewer which runs (now thankfully redirected) from the Roman Forum.

 

Retrace your steps to the end of the gardens, down the steps beside the Temple of Portunis and the beginning of the Via Luigi Petroselli.

 

16.  Here you come to one of the last surviving examples of Roman medieval domestic architecture, the Casa dei Crescenzi.  Built by the Crescenzi family between 1040 and 1065, its architecture sees the extravagant use of volutes, coffering, putti and sphinxes. At the time, families throughout Rome attempted to rival one another in their use of appropriated antiquities to flaunt their Roman lineage.

 

Continue to walk along the Via Luigi Petroselli, a road build by Mussolini as part of his grand scheme to modernise Rome, past Fascist style government offices. Across the road are the foundations of the Forum Holitorium, this being the center of the vegetable markets of the Velabrum. Little remains, but just further along past the Forum is another over-restored medieval house.

 

Crossing the Via Foro Olitorio ...

 

17.  ... you come to a three-temple complex that now houses the Church of St Nicola in Carcere (St. Nicholas by the Gaol), a reference to a nearby 7th.C. prison. Disentangling the temples from the church is not easy, particularly as the left and right temples are barely visible, but the church basically sits atop the three, with columns from each visible in its exterior and interior walls. The temples are from the 2nd and 3rd.C.BCE, while the church was built over their remains in the 7th.C.CE. The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas who is patron saint of sailors and children, and of course, is Santa Claus.

 

Continue along the via Petroselli ...

 

As you approach the brick supporting wall of the Theatre of Marcellus, look up to see the marble plaque set in by Mussolini to mark his plan to create the via Petroselli as a marching parade for his troops. The plaque shows the three 'fascista' with the date 'VII EF', or 7 years into the Fascist Era (i.e. 1929).

 

 

At last we approach the Theatre of Marcellus, but to get to it you first walk past the theatre to ...

 

18.  The three columns that are all that remain of the Temple of Apollo Sosiano, first dedicated in the 5th.C.BCE, then rebuilt by Augustus in the 1st.C.CE.

 

 

 

The medieval brick building behind is a 13th.C. hotel.

 

The site has long been populated by random buildings and houses, covering all of the area.  Between 1926 and 1932, as part of his grand plan to restore the majesty of Imperial Rome as a forerunner to his Fascist government, Mussolini cleared the area to allow a better view of the Theatre of Marcellus, uncovering the fallen columns. In 1940, the columns were raised again, although doubt exists as to their exact original positions. Interestingly, the capitals are Greek Corinthian with some extra Roman vegies added, and the columns feature the first examples of the new ‘Italic’ style with alternating wide and narrow flutes.

 

Walk down the ramp to ...

 

19. Stand in front of the enormous Theatre of Marcellus. Started by Julius Caesar but completed by Augustus (who dedicated it to his nephew Marcellus) in the 1st.C.BCE, this was 80 years before and possibly the inspiration for the Colosseum. The interior is now inaccessible but little remains of the open-air theatre that once held 15,000 people. The network of arches, corridors, tunnels and ramps that gave access to the interior was ornamented with a screen of Greek columns: Doric at the base, Ionic in the middle. It is believed that Corinthian columns were used for the upper level but this is uncertain as the theatre was reconstructed in the Middle Ages, removing the top tier of seating and the columns. The theatre fell out of use in the early 4th.C. and the structure served as a quarry for building materials to be used all over Rome.

 

However, the statues located inside the building were restored in 421 and the remaining structure then housed small residential buildings. In the Early Middle Ages the theatre was used as a fortress of the Fabii family, saving the complex from further destruction. The Savelli held it in the 13th.C. Later, in the 16th.C., the residence of the Orsini family was built atop the ruins. By the 19th.C., rises in the street level meant that almost half the ground floor was below it. Now the upper floors are divided into multiple apartments (got a spare couple of million euro?).

 

You can walk further around the base of the Theatre and exit at some further excavations and the ghetto, which I will attempt to describe some time soon.

 

Thanks for much of the information used in this walk to sometime resident of both Rome and Sydney, Jeffrey Hilton, his recommendation for an excellently detailed guidebook “The Rome Guide” by Mauro Lucentini, and the Wiki “Churches in Rome” site.

Walk 4.

Santa Sabina to the
Theatre of Marcellus

A two to three hour walk from the Aventine Hill
to the Ghetto

 

Part 1. Santa Sabina to the Tiber

Click the map to see locations.

1. Start at the picturesque Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta on the Aventine Hill, reached by Via Santa Sabina and best climbed by taxi.

 

The site on the Aventine Hill, overlooking the Tiber and across the city, was already a fortified Benedictine monastery in the 10th.C. The monastery passed to the crusading Knights Templars and after the destruction of their order, to the Knights Hospitalers, predecessors of the present Order of Malta.

 

Here is the Villa del Priorato di Malta, home of the Catholic Military Order of Malta.

 

The building and grounds have been granted extraterritorial status, so are sovereign territory outside Italian jurisdiction. The Villa is best known for a small keyhole in the arched entrance doorway, through which the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica can be seen at the end of a garden framed in clipped cypress trees. (Don’t be fooled by the apparent size of St Peter's … it is small and a long way away. Below is a picture taken from the next door garden.) You won’t miss the keyhole gate as it will usually have a queue of tourists lined up to take their turn at quickly squinting a peek, then taking an out-of-focus photo through the keyhole.

 

I, of course, did the same … my result (left) and the actual view (right).

Apart from a nicely framed view of St Peter's, the excitement comes from looking through the sovereign territory of Malta, seeing buildings in Italy, then seeing St Peter's in The Vatican…. three countries at once!

[hoo-ray!].

 

2. Next door is the Basilica of Saint Bonifacio and Alessio.

Founded between the 3rd and 4th centuries, it was restored in 1216 by Pope Honorius III and several times since. Some small columns of the original building survive embedded in the rear wall. Note this church faces North-South, not East-West as is the norm but not the rule.

The main altar contains relics of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

 

Saint Boniface of Tarsus was, according to legend, executed for being a Christian in the year 307, having traveled wide to bring back to his mistress Aglaida, relics of the martyrs. He apparently "lived in debauchery"  with his mistress (who was also executed) and has over time been relegated from a venerated saint to being completely removed by Pope Paul IV in 1969.

 

Alessio (Alexis) was allegedly the son of a Roman Senator, who as a teenager left home to escape consummating an arranged marriage, then spent 17 years in wandering in humility as a destitute beggar. He returned to live unrecognised by his parents in a toolshed under a wooden exterior staircase at the family home near or under the present church. He died before they did and they found a paper revealing his identity on his body.

 

The shrine to the left inside the church entrance has his statue under the preserved staircase.

 

3. Next church along is what you have really come up here to see… the ancient Basilica Santa Sabina, perhaps the best example of an early Christian church in Rome.

Sabina was a rich matron who lived in the 4th.C., beheaded under the Emperor Vespasian, (or perhaps Hadrian), because she had been converted to Christianity by her servant Seraphia, who was stoned to death for her trouble. Both Sabina and Seraphia were later declared Catholic saints. Thee basilica was built in 425 CE under Pope Celestine I, precisely where the house of the martyr stood. As was the custom, the building was constructed with re-used materials, including 24 marble columns from the nearby temple of Juno Regina.

 

​Building works in the church over the centuries were numerous and various: Mid 16th.C. it was incorporated into the fort built by the Crescenzi family, then in the late 1500s to the mid 1600s, the interior was restored in full baroque style by Borromini among others. After 1870, when the monasteries were suppressed, the church was transformed into a quarantine station for sailors and later became the first steam laundry in Rome!

 

It was from here that in 590 CE a procession began, led by Pope Gregory the Great, to ward off a terrible plague afflicting Rome. It ceased when the Archangel Michael appeared on the Mausoleum of Hadrian, which since then has been called Castel Sant'Angelo.

 

In the 10th.C. the basilica was combined with the fortress of the emperor Albericus II but in the following century the church passed to the Savelli family. In 1222, Santa Sabina was given to the newly-created Dominican Order, in whose care it remains today. The cell of St. Dominic is still preserved inside the church, transformed into a chapel.

 

One of the stories of Saint Dominic concerns a black stone (in reality a balance weight from Roman times) said to have been thrown by the devil at the praying saint. The devil missed and the stone is now mounted on a column to the left of the entrance.

 

In 1287 the Conclave that was to elect the successor of Pope Honorius IV met at Santa Sabina, but a malaria epidemic decimated the cardinals. The survivors, not caring about the vacant papal seat, all fled, except for Girolamo Masci, was then elected pope Nicholas IV, a rich reward for being unperturbed in the face of danger!

 

A major remodeling of the interior in the Renaissance style took place under Pope Sixtus V (1585-90), which was reversed in a restoration of 1914-19. The later work included reconstructing all the original windows and piecing together the marble chancel furniture from fragments found in the pavement.   Another survivor of the original church is a 5th.C. dedicatory mosaic inscription along the rear wall. The lengthy Latin text, written in gold on a blue background, is flanked by two female figures who personify the Church of the Jews and the Church of the Gentiles.

 

Outside and to the left of the entrance, are the original cypress wood doors, dating from the 5th.C.  Only 18 of the original 28 panels have survived after restoration in 1836, representing scenes from the New and Old Testaments, not without some retouching … in the panel depicting Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea, the face of the Pharaoh has been modified, taking on a strong resemblance to Napoleon!

 

However of far more importance is the panel at the top left. Here is what is believed to be the earliest representation of the crucifixion yet discovered.

 

Behind the wall opposite the doors is a small church garden. Legend has it that Spanish St. Dominic gave the garden its first orange tree. Having transported the sapling from Spain, he planted it close to the cloisters where it flourished. Supposedly St. Catherine of Siena picked its oranges and made candied fruit, which she gave to Pope Urban VI. Miraculously, a younger tree which continues to bear fruit, grew on its remains, visible through a "porthole" in the wall.

 

Walk through the gate in the wall next to the church to ...

 

4. The beautiful Giardino degli Aranci (Garden of Oranges), originally a garden of the church of Santa Sabina. The garden provides a fabulous view across the rooftops of Rome, with St Peter's in the distance and has been used as a backdrop in numerous Italian films.

 

Return to the main road and turn left, following the old walls.

 

5. Just past the gardens, look left down a narrow cobbled lane Clivo di Rocca Savella.

 

This medieval road, built over an earlier Roman road, follows the ancient walls of the monastery, winding its way down to the river.

 

Continue along the road another 200 metres and on your right, behind iron railings, is the Rose Garden. You should be able to enter and walk through to the busy road beyond, the Via Circo Massimo. There are precious few pedestrian crossings in this area and this is one road that you will have to take your chances and find a way across to the look-out over the park of the Circo Massimo and the Palatine Hill beyond.

 

​6. The Circo Massimo and the Palatine Hill. Time to consult your guidebooks for info here... plenty to see and much, much more to be imagined.

 

7. Continuing downhill on the Via Circo Massimo, you will emerge onto the busy Via Santa Maria in Cosmadin.

 

Part 2. The Tiber to the Theatre of Marcellus

 

 

Click the map to see locations.

 

8. The area in front of you, stretching along the river to the Theatre of Marcellus and on your right to the Palatine Hill, originally a field of flat and marshy ground, was the Roman Velabrum, or vegetable and cattle markets. There was a trading post here long before Rome was established. The area has a special place in the legendary history of Rome as well, as the legend of Rome claims that it was here that Romulus and Remus came ashore after being abandoned in a basket on the river as babies. The famous she-wolf then adopted them. A stream ran down from the Forum to the river. This was bricked over in the 5th.C. BCE, with tunnels large enough to drive a chariot through and still serves as a sewer line. But I ask you … what have the Romans ever done for us?

 

The markets were well sited between the river where most of the produce arrived into Rome and the shops of the Imperial Forum past the Capitol and Palatine hills. This was a thriving location for shops, fairs and storage areas right through the ages, in fact up to the 1930’s when Fascist-era excavations and ‘clean-ups’ relocated much of the local population and removed much of the colour. Note the long low Mussolini built offices stretching along Via Luigi Petroselli, itself a fascist era project, towards the Temple of Marcellus. However, a careful look reveals many relics of the original buildings of the area.

 

In Roman times, as the markets grew in importance, the Velabrum became an area where activities, either by law or tradition, could not take place within city limits. Foreign ambassadors and dignitaries were required to wait here in the temples, as they were barred form entering the city before having their credentials accepted. Victorious generals, fresh from battles on foreign lands, waited here to learn if their request for a ‘triumph’ had been granted. No active soldier, unless part of the elite military guard, could enter the city without permission.

 

History also records that human sacrifice was, if not common, at least practiced occasionally here.  A prophesy that “Greeks and Gauls will one day possess Rome” was fulfilled instead by burying some unfortunate Greek and Gaulic victims in the ‘Roman soil’. Every 15th of May, to appease the river god Tibernius, twenty-four 60 year olds were thrown off the bridge that crossed the Tiber here … if they couldn’t swim, bad luck.

 

Walk north, crossing the Via della Greca ...

 

9. On the right you will find the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmadin.  You will know you have found it because  tourists will be queueing to have a picture taken with their hands in the mouth of the Bocca della Veritas (Mouth of Truth) in the church portico. Apparently this is an important destination for tour companies that promote “Roman Holiday” tours, with stops at all the sites featured in the 1953 film with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

 

The legend is that the mouth would bite anyone who put their hand into it and lies. It was even used as a lie detector in medieval trials, especially of adulteresses. It is actually either an ancient fountainhead or a manhole cover … take your choice. (You also might have noticed another outside Santa Sabina, or another in the National Museum in Trastevere.)

 

This is a very ancient church, looking ancient both inside and out due to having been restored to its medieval state in the late 1800’s. The church was built in the 6th.C. on the site of an old food distribution building. The porch is 12th.C., the doors 11th.C., and the bell tower 13th.C.. Most of the interior is 8th.C., except for the 11th-13th.C liturgical furniture.  All the columns are roman except for their 12th.C. capitals. In a recess of the gift shop there is a very rare fragment of a mosaic from the original Church of St Peter's. In the crypt is a small temple dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian.

 

Leaving the church, continue along to the right and walk to the stone archway ...

 

10. The massive travertine cube of the Arch of Janus.  Many incorrectly attribute this as a celebration arch dedicated to the god Janus. In fact a ‘janus’ was a four way covered passage, a meeting point for travelers and merchants in the marketplace, which this is. It was built under Constantine in the 4th.C.

 

All the decorative marble exterior was removed in the middle ages to provide local building material. The niches probably held statues. It remains the only ancient monument in the area not to have been restored.

 

The area around the arch remains fenced off following a car bomb explosion in the square behind, set off in 1993 by the Sicilian Mafia in protest at new anti-mafia regulations.(See 12. below)

 

Take the steps to the left and walk along to the rear of the Arch.

 

11. Directly behind the arch and to the left, leaning up against the side of the church, is the Arch of the Moneychangers,  built in 264 CE by their association and the cattle merchants. This is believed to be an ornamental entrance to the market from a long vanished side street. Much of the decorative figure-work has been erased or worn away, but it mostly refers to “Bassianus Marcus Aurelius Antonius”, better known to us as Caracalla. The holes in the sides ware apparently made by treasure hunters who believed that within the arch was hidden the gold of the moneychangers.

 

12. Beside the arch is the church of Saint George in Velabro. Founded in the 6th or 7th.C., St George was a legendary roman soldier famous for slaying a dragon.

 

The church interior, while appearing medieval, is actually a rendition in 1923 by Mussolini’s main architect Munoz of what a Romanesque interior should look like with a fascist interpretation. The interior features columns from ancient roman buildings with 7th.C. capitals.

 

Pope Zachary (741–752), who was of Greek origin, moved the relics of St. George here, meaning that this saint had a church dedicated in the West well before the spreading of his worship with the return of the Crusaders from the East. The relics of St. George are kept under the main altar, however the Vatican has questioned whether he ever existed. Incidentally St. George is not only just the patron saint of England but also Genoa, Venice, Barcelona, Portugal, Lithuania, Georgia, the Crusaders and the Boy Scouts. Really.

The ceiling of the apse was painted in 1300 by Pietro Cavallini, Rome's best-known artist of the time. (Note … a must see are Cavallini’s multi-coloured winged angels in the convent of the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.)  If the interior feels a little ‘wonky’, that’s because it is. The rear wall is 2 metres wider than at the altar, with the right hand arcade straight and the left narrowing.

 

It was outside this church that in 1993, the Sicilian mafia set off a bomb, one of three in Rome that day that killed six people. It was seen at the time to be a symbolic attack on Rome (i.e. at the birthplace of Romulus and Remus) in retaliation for new laws aimed at suppressing organized crime. Both the laws and the attempt to stop them have worked well, haven’t they.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is now time for a well earned break.

 

At the top end of the square of St. George's church is a bar "Anima mundi" ("sole of the world", a reference to the square being regarded as the founding site of the Romulus and Remus legend) that serves excellent coffee, even more excellent beer and if you are hungry, great hamburgers.... not really Roman food I know, but if you are going to go crazy, here is a good spot. (2025 ... closed, I fear a victim of covid.)

 

Head back past the Arch of Janus and brave the traffic to cross the main road to the garden.

 

13.  Here you will find the round Temple of Hercules and the square Temple of Portunis. Both now contain small churches but these are rarely used. The Temple of Hercules used to be called the Temple of Vesta because it looked like the one in the Forum, but that was wrong. This temple, built in the 2nd.C. BCE, was the first marble temple in Rome (all previously in tufa), the stone imported at huge expense from Athens and is one of Rome’s few round temples. Hercules was considered a protector of butchers, hence its proximity to the cattle market. The roof is modern and a marble frieze over the columns is missing, giving the temple a disturbing out-of-proportion look. According to legend, neither flies nor dogs will enter this temple. Probably has something to do with the heavily locked door.

 

14. Just along is the Temple of Portunis, god of harbours, but also grain and livestock. Built between 120-80 BCE and converted to a church in 874 dedicated to Saint Mary of Egypt, it features a mixture of columns… some marble, some tufa. The Ionic capitals and fine symmetry have made this temple the subject of many engravings.

 

Time to brave the traffic again, but this time across the Lungetevere towards the river.

 

15.  To the right of the busy Ponte Palatino is the Ponte Rotto, or “broken bridge”. This was originally the Ponte Aemilius, Rome’s oldest stone bridge, built in the 2nd.C. BCE. The Tiber’s current is so strong here that the bridge has twice collapsed and been rebuilt, the last time in 1568. It then fell again in 1598 and has remained ‘broken’ since. Cross to the left side of the Ponte Palatino to get a view under the bank of the river to the exit of the Cloaca Maxima, the 5th.C. BCE sewer which runs (now thankfully redirected) from the Roman Forum.

 

Retrace your steps to the end of the gardens, down the steps beside the Temple of Portunis and the beginning of the Via Luigi Petroselli.

 

16.  Here you come to one of the last surviving examples of Roman medieval domestic architecture, the Casa dei Crescenzi.  Built by the Crescenzi family between 1040 and 1065, its architecture sees the extravagant use of volutes, coffering, putti and sphinxes. At the time, families throughout Rome attempted to rival one another in their use of appropriated antiquities to flaunt their Roman lineage.

 

Continue to walk along the Via Luigi Petroselli, a road build by Mussolini as part of his grand scheme to modernise Rome, past Fascist style government offices. Across the road are the foundations of the Forum Holitorium, this being the center of the vegetable markets of the Velabrum. Little remains, but just further along past the Forum is another over-restored medieval house.

 

Crossing the Via Foro Olitorio ...

 

17.  ... you come to a three-temple complex that now houses the Church of St Nicola in Carcere (St. Nicholas by the Gaol), a reference to a nearby 7th.C. prison. Disentangling the temples from the church is not easy, particularly as the left and right temples are barely visible, but the church basically sits atop the three, with columns from each visible in its exterior and interior walls. The temples are from the 2nd and 3rd.C.BCE, while the church was built over their remains in the 7th.C.CE. The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas who is patron saint of sailors and children, and of course, is Santa Claus.

 

Continue along the via Petroselli ...

 

As you approach the brick supporting wall of the Theatre of Marcellus, look up to see the marble plaque set in by Mussolini to mark his plan to create the via Petroselli as a marching parade for his troops. The plaque shows the three 'fascista' with the date 'VII EF', or 7 years into the Fascist Era (i.e. 1929).

 

 

At last we approach the Theatre of Marcellus, but to get to it you first walk past the theatre to ...

 

18.  The three columns that are all that remain of the Temple of Apollo Sosiano, first dedicated in the 5th.C.BCE, then rebuilt by Augustus in the 1st.C.CE.

 

 

 

The medieval brick building behind is a 13th.C. hotel.

 

The site has long been populated by random buildings and houses, covering all of the area.  Between 1926 and 1932, as part of his grand plan to restore the majesty of Imperial Rome as a forerunner to his Fascist government, Mussolini cleared the area to allow a better view of the Theatre of Marcellus, uncovering the fallen columns. In 1940, the columns were raised again, although doubt exists as to their exact original positions. Interestingly, the capitals are Greek Corinthian with some extra Roman vegies added, and the columns feature the first examples of the new ‘Italic’ style with alternating wide and narrow flutes.

 

Walk down the ramp to ...

 

19. Stand in front of the enormous Theatre of Marcellus. Started by Julius Caesar but completed by Augustus (who dedicated it to his nephew Marcellus) in the 1st.C.BCE, this was 80 years before and possibly the inspiration for the Colosseum. The interior is now inaccessible but little remains of the open-air theatre that once held 15,000 people. The network of arches, corridors, tunnels and ramps that gave access to the interior was ornamented with a screen of Greek columns: Doric at the base, Ionic in the middle. It is believed that Corinthian columns were used for the upper level but this is uncertain as the theatre was reconstructed in the Middle Ages, removing the top tier of seating and the columns. The theatre fell out of use in the early 4th.C. and the structure served as a quarry for building materials to be used all over Rome.

 

However, the statues located inside the building were restored in 421 and the remaining structure then housed small residential buildings. In the Early Middle Ages the theatre was used as a fortress of the Fabii family, saving the complex from further destruction. The Savelli held it in the 13th.C. Later, in the 16th.C., the residence of the Orsini family was built atop the ruins. By the 19th.C., rises in the street level meant that almost half the ground floor was below it. Now the upper floors are divided into multiple apartments (got a spare couple of million euro?).

 

You can walk further around the base of the Theatre and exit at some further excavations and the ghetto, which I will attempt to describe some time soon.

 

Thanks for much of the information used in this walk to sometime resident of both Rome and Sydney, Jeffrey Hilton, his recommendation for an excellently detailed guidebook “The Rome Guide” by Mauro Lucentini, and the Wiki “Churches in Rome” site.