RENAISSANCE CITY PLANNING: RENOVATION OF CITY OF ROME 15-17th Century

15th C. POPE NICHOLAS 1450’s
Motives: repair: neglected & ruined streets, churches after absence of Papacy in Avignon

religious instruction through grandeur: Church can appeal to the illiterate population through "grandiose
spectacles and magnificent buildings ... monuments in some sense perpetual that appear almost to testify
to the hand of God himself.”

authority of the church: visually asserted through rituals, buildings, and processions

Possesso: procession from Vatican to St. John Lateran -- cathedral church of Bishop of Rome in SE of city
aftercrowning of Pope in St. Peters

SIXTUS IV DELLA ROVERE 1471-84
           rebuilds over 30 churches, builds seven new ones, classical statues in museum on Capitol Hil
l                              
Painting by Melozzo da Forli of dedication of Vatican Library by Sixtus IV (with four nephews)
          Inscription“You gave your city temples, streets, squares, fortifications, bridges and restored the Aqua
           Vergine as far as the Trevi..."

1475: Jubilee Year builds Ponte Sisto first post-classical bridge over the Tiber
         Construction of Via della Lungara from Trastevere to Vatican (first straight road)

JULIUS II DELLA ROVERE 1503-1513
Construction of Via Giulia parallel to Via Lungara on east side of Tiber

PAUL III FARNESE 1534-1549

         1536-46 Michelangelo's redesign of Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill)
                        Steps up to piazza called cordonnata: three palaces in trapezoidal frame
                        Palazzo dei Conservatoril, Palazzo Senatorio (now the Roman city hall)
                                     river gods in front = Tiber and Nile
                        Palazzo Nuovo blocking view of side of Santa Maria in Aracoeli
                      
         1538 lays down trident at Piazza del Popolo, northern entrance to the city
                   Via Lata (del Corso)
                   Via Paolina (now Via del Babuino)
                   Via della Ripetta (built by Leo X)

SIXTUS V 1585-90  renovation of city of Rome; obelisks

Vatican obelisk: 1586 moved by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana; engineering feat commemorated in a series of engravings .
The Vatican Obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that had not toppled since ancient Roman times. Obelisk later becomes the centerpiece
of Bernini's redesigned Piazza di San Pietro (Piazzo of St. Peter).

Obelisks at Santa Maria Maggiore, San Giovanni in Laterano, Piazza del Popolo

Link to more information on obelisks