Via del Corso
Encyclopedia
The Via del Corso commonly known as the Corso, is a main street in the historical centre of Rome
. It is remarkable for being absolutely straight in an area characterized by narrow meandering alley
s and small piazza
s. Considered a wide street in ancient times, today the Corso is approximately 10 metres wide, and it only has room for two lanes of traffic and two narrow sidewalks. The northern portion of the street is a pedestrian
area. The length of the street is roughly 1.5 kilometres.
The Corso runs in a generally north-south direction. To the north, it links the northern entrance gate to the city, the Porta del Popolo and its piazza, the Piazza del Popolo
, to the heart of the city at the Piazza Venezia
, at the base of the Capitoline Hill
. At the Piazza del Popolo, Via del Corso is framed by two Baroque
churches , Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto
, and along the street are the church of San Carlo al Corso
, the Piazza Colonna
with the ancient column of Marcus Aurelius
and the Galleria Alberto Sordi
, Santa Maria in Via Lata
, San Marcello al Corso
and the Palazzo Doria Pamphili.
From the fifteenth century, the road served as the racetrack during the Roman Carnival for an annual running of riderless horses called the "corsa dei barberi", which is the source for the name Via del Corso. Today, the Corso a popular place for the passegiata, the evening stroll for the populace to be seen and to see others. It is also an important shopping street for tourists and locals alike.
censor built a new road to link Rome with the Adriatic Sea
in the north. The starting point of the road was Porta Fontinalis, a gate in the Servian city walls
near present-day Piazza Venezia. In its first miles Via Flaminia
cut through the plain between the Tiber
and the eastern hills in a straight line. The Field of Mars
, as it was called, was at the time used as a training ground and pasture. Numerous tombs must have lined the road similarly to the Appian Way
.
The open area outside the city walls went through a process of urbanization during the late Republican and early imperial age. The city gradually spread towards north and monumental public buildings were built along the road. A set of dynastic monuments around the Mausoleum of Augustus
was the most important development in the formerly unpopulated northern section of the district.
The ancient name of Via Lata (which means Broad Way) denotes that the street was considered wide, especially in comparison to neighbouring lanes but at three places along its length, it became narrower due to triumphal arches. The first was the Arcus Novus erected by Diocletian
in 303-304, then the Arch of Claudius (AD 51-52) stood further ahead (the Aqua Virgo
aquaduct crossed the road on top of it) and the third was later known as the Arco di Portogallo.
The most important ancient monuments alog Via Lata were Aurelian
's Temple of the Sun, the Ara Pacis
, the Ustrinum Domus Augustae
, the Ara Providentiae and the Column of Marcus Aurelius
. A densely populated residential quarter from the Hadrianic era was discovered on the right side of the road between Via delle Muratte and Via delle Convertite. With the building of the Aurelian Walls
(AD 271-75) the whole area was incorporated into the city of Rome, and a new city gate (Porta Flaminia) was erected at present-day Piazza del Popolo
where the road left the urban territory.
From around the year 600 AD, the Corso accommodated a welfare centre linked to feeding the populace at Santa Maria in Via Lata
and granaries at its southern end. During the Middle Ages the Via Lata, the present day Corso, effectively denoted a boundary, to the city which mainly developed to the south and east of it.
From the fifteenth century, the Via del Corso became a fashionable street for new or renovated churches and new palaces for the nobility . However, by the mid seventeenth century, the street remained a mixture of different scales and architectural styles, some unfashionable, a number of churches lacked facades and some buildings were a combination of structures from different periods or were simply incomplete.
The lack of regularity and decorum of this principal street of the city meant that it became a main urban priority of Pope Alexander VII
. In pursuing the nobility to complete their properties, he met with limited success; some just did not have the funds, some were content to avoid the issue by continuing to reside on their country estates In the case of unfinished churches, he encouraged ecclesiastical colleagues to act as sponsors.
Where he met with greater success was over imposing order on the street by empowering the maestri di strade, the municipal body in charge of streets, to clear, align and regularize the street . This meant the properties could be acquired and demolished if necessary, projections from buildings could be removed and others added to so as to maintain a consistent line of street frontage. He even had the ancient triumphal arch, the Arco di Portogallo, demolished because the central gateway of this arch effectively reduced the street width to almost half.
Alexander took a particular interest in regularizing the Piazza Colonna
, about half way along the Corso. In 1659, his family, the Chigi
, bought the incomplete Palazzo Aldobrandini, bordering the piazza and the Corso, and rebuilt as Palazzo Chigi
. Around the same time, the leading painter of the time, Pietro da Cortona
, developed a design for a ‘fountain palace’ in the piazza, a palace with a large fountain at the base of the façade, but this precursor of the Trevi Fountain
was not built.
The Corso was also tied to Alexander’s intentions to impress significant dignitaries paying official visits to the city. The Porta del Popolo was reworked and the Piazza del Popolo cleared. The two Baroque
churches facing onto the Piazza marked perpectivised vistas along the Via del Babuino to the left, the Via di Ripetta to the right and at the centre, the straightened and regularized Via del Corso leading to the Piazza Venezia.
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. It is remarkable for being absolutely straight in an area characterized by narrow meandering alley
Alley
An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting...
s and small piazza
Piazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
s. Considered a wide street in ancient times, today the Corso is approximately 10 metres wide, and it only has room for two lanes of traffic and two narrow sidewalks. The northern portion of the street is a pedestrian
Pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...
area. The length of the street is roughly 1.5 kilometres.
The Corso runs in a generally north-south direction. To the north, it links the northern entrance gate to the city, the Porta del Popolo and its piazza, the Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.The piazza lies inside the northern...
, to the heart of the city at the Piazza Venezia
Piazza Venezia
The Piazza Venezia is a piazza in central Rome, Italy. It takes its name from Cardinal Venezia who built the adjacent Palazzo Venezia, the former embassy of the city of the Republic of Venice....
, at the base of the Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
. At the Piazza del Popolo, Via del Corso is framed by two Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
churches , Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto
Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto
Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto are two churches in Rome.They are located on the Piazza del Popolo, facing the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls, at the entrance of Via del Corso on the square...
, and along the street are the church of San Carlo al Corso
San Carlo al Corso
Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso is a basilica church in Rome, Italy, facing onto the central part of the Via del Corso. It is dedicated to Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Charles Borromeo, also a native of that city...
, the Piazza Colonna
Piazza Colonna
Piazza Colonna is a piazza at the center of the Rione of Colonna in the historic heart of Rome, Italy. It is named for the marble Column of Marcus Aurelius which has stood there since 193 CE. The bronze statue of Saint Paul that crowns the column was placed in 1589, by order of Pope Sixtus V...
with the ancient column of Marcus Aurelius
Column of Marcus Aurelius
The Column of Marcus Aurelius is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modeled on Trajan's Column.- Construction :...
and the Galleria Alberto Sordi
Galleria Alberto Sordi
Galleria Alberto Sordi, until 2003 Galleria Colonna, is a shopping arcade in Rome named after the actor Alberto Sordi.On the Via del Corso, it was constructed, as Galleria Colonna , in 1914 on the site of Palazzo Piombino. The building is in the Art Nouveau style....
, Santa Maria in Via Lata
Santa Maria in Via Lata
Santa Maria in Via Lata is a church on the Via del Corso , in Rome, Italy.-History:It is claimed that St. Paul spent two years here, in the crypt under the church, whilst under house arrest waiting for his trial. This conflicts with the tradition regarding San Paolo alla Regola...
, San Marcello al Corso
San Marcello al Corso
San Marcello al Corso is a church in Rome, Italy, devoted to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in via del Corso, the ancient via Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo....
and the Palazzo Doria Pamphili.
From the fifteenth century, the road served as the racetrack during the Roman Carnival for an annual running of riderless horses called the "corsa dei barberi", which is the source for the name Via del Corso. Today, the Corso a popular place for the passegiata, the evening stroll for the populace to be seen and to see others. It is also an important shopping street for tourists and locals alike.
History
The history of Via del Corso began in 220 BC when Gaius FlaminiusGaius Flaminius
Gaius Flaminius Nepos was a politician and consul of the Roman Republic in the 3rd century BC. He was the greatest popular leader to challenge the authority of the Senate before the Gracchi a century later....
censor built a new road to link Rome with the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
in the north. The starting point of the road was Porta Fontinalis, a gate in the Servian city walls
Servian Wall
The Servian Wall was a defensive barrier constructed around the city of Rome in the early 4th century BC. The wall was up to 10 metres in height in places, 3.6 metres wide at its base, 11 km long, and is believed to had 16 main gates, though many of these are mentioned only from...
near present-day Piazza Venezia. In its first miles Via Flaminia
Via Flaminia
The Via Flaminia was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had for travel between Etruria, Latium and Campania and the Po Valley...
cut through the plain between the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
and the eastern hills in a straight line. The Field of Mars
Campus Martius
The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...
, as it was called, was at the time used as a training ground and pasture. Numerous tombs must have lined the road similarly to the Appian Way
Appian Way
The Appian Way was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia, in southeast Italy...
.
The open area outside the city walls went through a process of urbanization during the late Republican and early imperial age. The city gradually spread towards north and monumental public buildings were built along the road. A set of dynastic monuments around the Mausoleum of Augustus
Mausoleum of Augustus
The Mausoleum of Augustus is a large tomb built by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 28 BC on the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The Mausoleum, now located on the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, is no longer open to tourists, and the ravages of time and carelessness have stripped the ruins bare...
was the most important development in the formerly unpopulated northern section of the district.
The ancient name of Via Lata (which means Broad Way) denotes that the street was considered wide, especially in comparison to neighbouring lanes but at three places along its length, it became narrower due to triumphal arches. The first was the Arcus Novus erected by Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
in 303-304, then the Arch of Claudius (AD 51-52) stood further ahead (the Aqua Virgo
Aqua Virgo
The Aqua Virgo was one of the 11 aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome. The aqueduct fell into disuse with the fall of the Roman Empire, but was fully restored nearly a whole millennium later during the Renaissance to take its current form as the Acqua Vergine.The Aqua Virgo was...
aquaduct crossed the road on top of it) and the third was later known as the Arco di Portogallo.
The most important ancient monuments alog Via Lata were Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
's Temple of the Sun, the Ara Pacis
Ara Pacis
The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar to Peace, envisioned as a Roman goddess...
, the Ustrinum Domus Augustae
Ustrinum
In ancient Rome, an ustrinum was the site of a historical funeral pyre. The ancient Greek equivalent word was καύστρα .-Ustrinum Domus Augustae:...
, the Ara Providentiae and the Column of Marcus Aurelius
Column of Marcus Aurelius
The Column of Marcus Aurelius is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modeled on Trajan's Column.- Construction :...
. A densely populated residential quarter from the Hadrianic era was discovered on the right side of the road between Via delle Muratte and Via delle Convertite. With the building of the Aurelian Walls
Aurelian Walls
The Aurelian Walls is a line of city walls built between 271 and 275 in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus....
(AD 271-75) the whole area was incorporated into the city of Rome, and a new city gate (Porta Flaminia) was erected at present-day Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.The piazza lies inside the northern...
where the road left the urban territory.
From around the year 600 AD, the Corso accommodated a welfare centre linked to feeding the populace at Santa Maria in Via Lata
Santa Maria in Via Lata
Santa Maria in Via Lata is a church on the Via del Corso , in Rome, Italy.-History:It is claimed that St. Paul spent two years here, in the crypt under the church, whilst under house arrest waiting for his trial. This conflicts with the tradition regarding San Paolo alla Regola...
and granaries at its southern end. During the Middle Ages the Via Lata, the present day Corso, effectively denoted a boundary, to the city which mainly developed to the south and east of it.
From the fifteenth century, the Via del Corso became a fashionable street for new or renovated churches and new palaces for the nobility . However, by the mid seventeenth century, the street remained a mixture of different scales and architectural styles, some unfashionable, a number of churches lacked facades and some buildings were a combination of structures from different periods or were simply incomplete.
The lack of regularity and decorum of this principal street of the city meant that it became a main urban priority of Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from 7 April 1655, until his death.- Early life :Born in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family of Chigi and a great-nephew of Pope Paul V , he was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from...
. In pursuing the nobility to complete their properties, he met with limited success; some just did not have the funds, some were content to avoid the issue by continuing to reside on their country estates In the case of unfinished churches, he encouraged ecclesiastical colleagues to act as sponsors.
Where he met with greater success was over imposing order on the street by empowering the maestri di strade, the municipal body in charge of streets, to clear, align and regularize the street . This meant the properties could be acquired and demolished if necessary, projections from buildings could be removed and others added to so as to maintain a consistent line of street frontage. He even had the ancient triumphal arch, the Arco di Portogallo, demolished because the central gateway of this arch effectively reduced the street width to almost half.
Alexander took a particular interest in regularizing the Piazza Colonna
Piazza Colonna
Piazza Colonna is a piazza at the center of the Rione of Colonna in the historic heart of Rome, Italy. It is named for the marble Column of Marcus Aurelius which has stood there since 193 CE. The bronze statue of Saint Paul that crowns the column was placed in 1589, by order of Pope Sixtus V...
, about half way along the Corso. In 1659, his family, the Chigi
Chigi
Chigi may refer to:* Chigi , a crossbreed between a Welsh Corgi and a chihuahua * House of Chigi, a Roman princely family* Chigi , an element in Japanese architecture...
, bought the incomplete Palazzo Aldobrandini, bordering the piazza and the Corso, and rebuilt as Palazzo Chigi
Palazzo Chigi
The Palazzo Chigi is a palace or noble residence in Rome, overlooking the Piazza Colonna and the Via del Corso. It was begun in 1562 by Giacomo della Porta and completed by Carlo Maderno in 1580 for the Aldobrandini family. In 1659 it was purchased by the Chigi family. It was then remodelled by...
. Around the same time, the leading painter of the time, Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...
, developed a design for a ‘fountain palace’ in the piazza, a palace with a large fountain at the base of the façade, but this precursor of the Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....
was not built.
The Corso was also tied to Alexander’s intentions to impress significant dignitaries paying official visits to the city. The Porta del Popolo was reworked and the Piazza del Popolo cleared. The two Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
churches facing onto the Piazza marked perpectivised vistas along the Via del Babuino to the left, the Via di Ripetta to the right and at the centre, the straightened and regularized Via del Corso leading to the Piazza Venezia.