It
is one of the most harmonious, spectacular and
characteristic city complexes of the baroque Rome
delimitating the buildings which rose up on the
remains of the Domitian stadium. The remains of
the stadium are included in the buildings on the
northern side of the square.
At the beginning it was a circus without lions
and gladiators. The emperor Domition was a peaceful
man who loved the horse races and competitions
of athletes called "agoni".From this
word the name Navona derives falsely (agone,
nagone, navone, navona).
Inaugurated in 81 A.C the Domition Stadium
was 240 meters long and 65 meters wide. The
actual square preserves the form and the dimensions
of the ancient camp with the only difference
of the ground which has been raised in 6 meters
covering the cavea and the tribune of travertine.
The tribunes were crowded by more than 30.000
spectators to give a hand to agonali . Some
remains of the stadium are still visible in
the rear of Piazza Tor Sanguigna and in the
basements of the Sant' Agnese church.
Over the corse of time the square had always
preserved its festive character. Folk parties,
races and games took place in the square through
the centuries.
Beginning from 1653 for more than a century
from Saturday morning untill Sunday night the
square was flooded with water. Within two hours
the water filled it all and the equipages of
the prelates and the princes specially dressed
for the party came here. Around them the most
lively din of the folks got loose here. Some
of them was navigating here on the carriages
of the gondola form. The other ones were swimming
here while the horses toddled and sometimes
drowned.
In 1810 in occasion of the angel's day of Napoleon
I a big horse race was organized with jockeys
dressed as ancient Romans. For the winners there
was no money prize but a workplace at the Council.
Nowadays from December 1 untill January 6 the
square is filled with souvernir-stalls. The
market crib of figures, toys, sweets and fifers
which came from Abruzzo to create the Christmas
atmosphere ringing their ancient sing-songs.
The square is always much crowded during the
day. The people come here to take the sun in
the daytime, to take ice-cream in the evening
and to wait the dawn in the night.
Three fountains adorn the square:
The Fountain del Moro in front of the Panphili
palace, so called because of the statue of the
Ethiopian who fights with a dolphin. It is a
work of art of Giovanni Antonio Mari created
in 1654 by the sketch of Bernini. It was ordered
by Olimpia Maidalchini who was a sister -in-law
of Innocent X for to enrich the polylobed basin
of Giacomo della Porta in 1575 which Gregorio
XIII had ordered to place in the square. The
tritons and the other ornaments around are copies
of Luigi Amici. They were placed here in 1874
instead of the pre-existent ones belonging to
the several sculptors of the Cinquecento. Nowadays
they are used for the fountains in the garden
of the lake of Villa Borghese , as well as four
masks which alternated by the tritons and which
came from the fountain erected by the same Della
Porta in 1573 in Piazza del popolo and which
was removed by Valadiet in 1823. The pool excavated
around the basin from which the beautiful drawing
derive also belongs to Bernini created by the
design of Borromini.
The Fountain of the Nettuno, in the past called
the fountain of coppersmiths, with a basin and
polylobed cup, also created by Della Porta in
1576 had remained bare until 1878. That year
for to make a comparison with that one of Moro
the competition was announced and the sculpture
of Nettuno which fights against the octopus
was placed here. The composition is created
by Della Bitta. The nereids, puttos and sea
horses were created by Zappalà.
In the center of the square one of the most
beautiful and fanciful works of Bernini Fontana
dei Fiumi dominates. Bernini gained with the
help of it the favour of Innocent X who was
hostile towards him at first. In the middle
of a wide round basin a rock excavated from
grottos stands out from where a lion and fantastic
animals go out to water in the fountain fed
by eight veils of water. On the rock the travertine
statues once colored are set representing the
Nile, the Gang, the Danube,and the Rio della
Plata. They represent created by Giacomo Antonio
Fancelli, Claudio Poussin, Antonio Raggi and
Francesco Baratta. Above the rock Bernini raised
hazardously an obelisk which is a Roman imitation
from the Domition time. It came from the Maxenzius
circus. On the top there is a dove made of bronze
with the coat of arms of the Pamphili 1,78 meters
high.
The legend attributes meanings of the rivalry
and enmity between Bernini and Borromini to
the gestures of the statues of the rivers. Borromini
was an author of the frontlying church Sant'
Agnese in Agone: the Plata extends the hand
to avoid the imminent collapse of the façade
of the church. The Nile has the veiled head
for to make the allusion to its unknown sources
of the epoch and for not to see the disgust
of the Borromini building. In its turn Sant'
Agnese statue lying on the base of the bell
tower of the church assures with the hand on
the chest that the church would not fall.
To face the expenses of his building the Pope
Innocent X introduced a tax on the bread for
more than 29 thousand shields since what the
people protested until 1651 when Bernini presented
its completed work. So then the common people
applauded either.
The Sant' Agnese in Agone church was built
in the place where according to the tradition
the Holy Agnese was exposed naked to the pillory
and was miracolously covered by his loose hair.
The building begun under Innocent X in 1652
by Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi was finished
by Borromini between 1653 and 1657.
