Piazza di Spagna, Spanish Steps

Magnificent Piazza di Spagna, 1st visited square in Rome

A magnificent symbol of Italian Baroque style, Piazza di Spagna and Spanish Steps, is one of Rome’s most-visited plazas. The Piazza di Spagna is Rome’s most famous squares. Since the seventeenth century, the name originates from the Palazzo di Spagna, the Spanish Embassy’s seat for the Vatican located on this square. Piazza di Spagna is positioned near Porta del Popolo, the central entrance to Rome in the XVIIIth centenary. Several resorts were placed near the square to provide for foreign travelers, who were glad to immediately find a conveniently placed accommodation after a long and tiring trip; for this cause, the area became known as the Foreigners’ Quarter. Primary chain properties so Piazza di Spagna continues to attract international travelers.

Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna

The Spanish Steps was created at the beginning of the XVIIIth centenary relating Piazza di Spagna, the Church Trinità Dei Monti, Villa Medici French area, and the Rome center. It is one of the most popular spots in Rome. The kings of France and the popes argued for more than a centenary to appropriately give SS admittance.

Need to jump to have a good seat

Trinità Dei Monti from the center of Rome; at one point, Monsignor Elpidio Benedetti, an envoy of Cardinal Jules Mazarin and the owner of Villa del Vascello, showed Pope Alexander VII a plan which the French were provided to finance. It had only one drawback for the Pope, i.e., it presented a sizeable equestrian sculpture of King Louis XIV. After the death of kings, relations with France changed, and in 1717 a competition was called for a suitable plan.

Spanish Steps

The second competition in 1723 led to the permission of a project created by Francesco de Sanctis; the arched lines of the steps revive those of Porto di Ripetta by Alessandro Specchi. Costs were born by France, and the small columns were decorated with the fleurs-de-lis of the French kings and the chequered eagle of Pope Innocent XIII, the supreme pope. A character that presents the beauty of the steps is that their axis is not perpendicular to the church; this lack of total symmetry gives them a lightness that a more classical approach would not yield.

Fontana della Barcaccia, in Piazza di Spagna 

Fontana della Barcaccia

The Fontana della Barcaccia was planned by Pietro Bernini, father of the popular Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who later supported the work. It was finished in 1627 and settled by Pope Urban III in the heart of Piazza di Spagna. The Fontana della Barcaccia is molded like a boat and has the Barberini family bees’ emblems and a sun engraved.

Location: Piazza di Spagna, Rome