Walk 4.

Santa Sabina to the
Theatre of Marcellus

 

Part 2. The Tiber to the Church of St. George

Part 3. St. George to the Ghetto

            (jump directly HERE)

 

PART 2 - The Tiber to the Church of St. George

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.

9. Walk north, crossing the Via della Greca and 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.

 

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

 

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. This 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. The altar claims to have the skull of St George within it, 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. That means this is one saint who has a lot of bones in a lot of churches worldwide.

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.

 

Part three ... from here to the Ghetto, is next.

Click HERE to go to Part 3 >>