Campidoglio

The Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio) is the smallest but most famous of the Seven Hills of Rome. It was the political and religious center of ancient Rome and since the end of the 11th century has been the seat of civic government of the city. The hill has two crests separated by a depression which is now the Piazza del Campidoglio. The northern summit, the arx or citadel of Rome, was dominated by the Temple of Juno Moneta, today covered by the church of St. Maria in Aracoeli. On the southern summit stood the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus, the most venerated in Rome. The investiture of consuls took place here and it was also the terminus of the triumphant procession awarded to victorious generals. In ancient times the Capitoline Hill was accessible primarily from the Forum to the southeast. By the 16th century the main buildings were oriented to the northwest toward the Vatican, emphasizing the consolidation of temporal and ecclesiastical power under the Renaissance Popes. The entire hill was redesigned by Michelangelo in 1534 in honor of Charles V's planned visit to Rome in 1536.

Campidoglio with Castor and Pollux

The Cordonata is Michelangelo's monumental stairway connecting the low-lying Campus Martius to the Capitoline Hill and the Piazza Campidoglio. Its top and bottom are adorned with pairs of ancient sculptures. Egyptian basalt lions taken from the Temple of Isis crown the fountains at the base, while colossal marble Roman copies of Greek originals from a temple in the Circus Flaminius, stand guard at the top- representing the Dioscuri - Castor and Pollux.

Campidoglio - Plan

At the top of the Cordonata, lies the Piazza del Campidoglio, beautifully designed by Michelangelo. The piazza is surrounded on three sides by stately palaces, organized in a trapezoid around the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-80). This unusual arrangement owes much to the extant placement of the Palazzo Senatore in relation to the Palazzo dei Conservatori. It took the genius of Michelangelo, however to see the possibilities of what a third palace, angled at the same degree as the Palazzo dei Conservatori, could accomplish in emphasizing at once the Palazzo Senatore and the ancient equestrian recently transported here from St. Giovanni in Laterano.

Campidoglio - Elevation

The Palazzo Conservatori has a very unusual design with Ionic columns supporting a flat open loggia below; and handsome windows with coupled columns on the piano nobile; surmounted by a prominent entablature topped by a balcony. The two stories of the palace are united by the use of a 'giant order' of pilasters, the first time this solution was used in secular architecture. Michelangelo employed this 'giant order' on a much larger scale in his articulation of the exterior of St. Peter's later on in the century.

Piazza del Campidoglio - Oval Plan

The handsome pavement of the piazza, with its oval star design gives prominence to the famous gilded bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-80), the only monumental Roman equestrian to survive. In fact, the entire design of the piazza was determined by the placement of the equestrian, which had been recently moved from the front of the Lateran Palace, by order of Pope Paul III Farnese, in honor of the arrival of Charles V into Rome in 1536. The city of Rome opens to the northwest, towards the Vatican, with monuments such as the Gesu and St. Ivo visible in the distance.

Vittorio Emanuele II Monument and St. Maria in Aracoeli

To the north of the Campidoglio rise a long flight of 124 marble steps (dating from 1348) to the church of St. Maria in Aracoeli (begun in the 7th century). The church occupies the site of the Roman citadel where according to medieval tradition the Tributine Sibyl foretold to Augustus the imminent coming of Christ in the words: 'Ecce ara primogenti Dei': hence the name 'Aracoeli' - church of the Altar of Heaven. In the 13th century the Franciscans built the present church, which became the official church of the Commune of Rome. To the north of the Aracoeli stands the Vittorio Emanuele II monument, built between 1885 and 1911, to honor the memory of the first king of united Italy. Some 80 meters high, it changed irrevocably the aspect of the city, throwing out of scale the Capitol itself. The architect, Giuseppi Sacconi, winning an international competition, employed a dazzling white 'bottocino' marble from Brescia, which further emphasized the monument with respect (or dis-respect) to its surroundings.