The University of Melbourne FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND PLANNING
705-117 CULTURE & HISTORY IN URBAN PLANNING & DESIGN
705-217/317 HISTORY OF URBAN PLANNING
Lecture Notes ©1998 C.M.Gutjahr
PART 6 - BAROQUE IN ITALY
Introduction
Renaissance
Renaissance art, especially architecture and urbanism, gave great importance to centralized patterns of organisation (in buildings, in ideal city plans) e.g. Jacques Perret., Ideal City 1601.
Yet Renaissance centralization was static and enclosed in character.
Its design idea or system never extended beyond clearly defined limits.
The design elements remained isolated within the land - or townscape.
Practical reality and existing conditions in Italy required architects and urban designers of the Renaissance to concern themselves with finite, individual environmental projects of limited scale rather than with totality as exemplified by the theoretical Ideal City Plans. e.g. Piazza Maggiore, Bologna.
This represents a Reversal of Thought
In time, this was to result in the individual, single urban problem or project becoming the central theme of the theoretical works as well; it became the focal point of architects' interest and thought, in practice as well as in theory, while consideration of its relationship to the wider environment and townscape became secondary and even subservient to the original, central pre-occupation; i.e. instead of thinking about the general or total concept first and then turning to the particular (as the Ideal Theorists did or as modern planners do) the reverse took place: detail - total.
Baroque Urban Design
Thus, out of the Renaissance, grew a reversal of thought which was to have important consequences during the Baroque and ensuing periods :
a. it was now the designer's objective to impose his defined, individual project on its immediate environment; to place it within the urban fabric and let it influence and react with its surroundings, to an extent largely controlled by the importance of the project and that of its client or patron.
From now on, the existing urban background/frame to a design project would be regarded as something to be shaped and sculptured in order to bring it into a harmonious relationship with the project. The designer wanted the environment to show off his work to its best advantage and to establish and reflect the relationship between environment and design object.
Each project was seen to exert an influence, in proportion to its field of force.
b. theory and practice lose their planning basis and their view of the overall concept (Ideal Cities); they become architectural or, at best, concerned with incidental urban design.
c. the urban population and its needs are no longer of importance in the design process, the project itself only is important; everything else was irrelevant.
d. neither nature nor man-made environment determine the character of individual works; in fact, the reverse was the case.
This kind of thinking led to the Baroque Age.
Definition of Baroque (Barocco)
- queer, absurd, originally a derogatory term then taken as degenerate form of Renaissance.
- style which succeeded Mannerism and was widely applied throughout the 17th century and well into the first half of 18th century
- its purest form is probably represented by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) - the great master of the so-called High Baroque, confined to Italy.
- style was originally associated with religious fervour calculated to appeal to the observer's emotions. It had started in Rome, in 16th century its basis being religious, and was primarily aimed to express the role of Rome as dominant focus of the Catholic World.
e.g S.Carlino alle Quatttro Fontane, Rome, by Borromini 1662-67
S. Agnese in Agone, Rome, by Borromini
From these familiar Italian examples, regional developments in Europe were largely derived, the emphasis shifting gradually to French prototypes, reflecting the evolution of political power.
The nature and spirit of the Baroque .
- urban planning becomes exclusive to the power elite: Popes, Jesuits, Nobility, Kings, Princes. It is the urbanism of the 'Grand Gesture' which says, as did Louis XIV, "l'Etat c'est moi" or "La Ville c'est moi"
- ruthlessness, grandeur and a previously unknown scale are introduced; yet so are a new view of life, the acknowledgement of beauty.
- planning is 'on stage', in the lime light of world history; the ruling powers use the urban stage to show themselves off, leaving the seamy side of city life in the shadows; architects and planners provide the 'looking glass' which was to mirror the aggrandisement of their patrons.
- the play of light and dark supersedes the planimetric rules of the Renaissance and its orderly view of the universe.
Michelangelo began the Baroque era in this spirit in Rome with the design of the Campidoglio; Pope Sixtus V was to continue Rome's urban development along those lines. After 1600, the Baroque had completely taken over.
Renaissance: 15th and 16th Centuries
The Renaissance brought about important changes in most aspects of life.
In political terms, it initiated the following changes:
- urban autonomy, so greatly fought for and prized in Middle Ages declines
- centralisation of power in the hands of relatively few secular Lords increases
- permanent government bureaucracies emerge to direct the affairs of complex nation state
- cities with princely residences take on the greatest importance in the political hierarchy of cities and become centres of absolute power.
Baroque: 17th Century
- is one of open systems with axes which dominate both the city and countryside. (no longer centralised, closed, limited scale and sized structures of Renaissance.)
- for the first time, networks of urbans streets tend towards integration with 'territorial' roads outside of cities
- forces of urbanism extend beyond city borders, implying the permanent presence of a political power i.e. the prince or king, who was an absolute ruler, and believed that his palace was both reference point and dominant centre of the surrounding territory.
- urban spaces, buildings, gardens, squares are no longer auto nomous and juxtaposed precincts but are subordinated to dominant systems of axes cutting across such precincts.
- streets turn into major axes of great length
- squares become nodal points and focal points of strong representative character.
THE TRUE BAROQUE CITY
"the capital city is the basic, original conception of the general period of Baroque urbanism" - Professor C. Norberg-Schulz
The true Baroque City, then is a Capital City. The term 'Baroque City' is considered synonymous with Capital City. The latter were noted already in 17th century as reducing secondary urban centres to mere satellites having no real life of their own.
This conception of the capital city influences every aspect of city and country development of the period. i.e. the true Baroque City becomes centre of forces extending beyond its borders.
Such forces were already struggling to emerge during 16th century but had failed to to do so because
1. most cities still required a wide belt of fortifications which separated them from the countryside.
2. the existing, inner structures hardly allowed for a consequent development of a Baroque plan exerting such forces.
We, therefore, usually find only fragments of the true Baroque urban system which, however, give an indication of the clear intention.
STRUCTURE OF BAROQUE CITY
Dominant Tendency (Quality)
Baroque environment is ordered according to an hierarchic centralisation.
Whole city = focus of a territorial network
its parts = condensed networks focussed on monumental buildings which in turn are geometricallly organised into still more condensed systems until the very centre is reached.
This represents a strong paradox:
1. on one hand, the emphasis on the partial plan, rather than development of the whole, being the dominant practical reality inherited from the Renaissance
2. on the other, the desire for architectural and illusionistic expansion.
Characteristic Elements of Baroque Urban structure
1. Focal Points
- symbolic squares and their monuments become an imperative Baroque activity: they are perceived as fitting foci of urban totality.
- squares have long tradition as the real core of the city, while their functions were usually public and civic, the Baroque made squares become part of the general 'ideological system' of the city:
e.g. 'Places Royales' of France with their central statues of rulers.
Palazzo del Quirinale and Piazza Montecavallo, Rome
2. Avenue, path or directional street
- the urban foci are interconnected by straight, regular streets which
provide important movement networks as well as perspective vistas.
e.g. Ave.XX Settembre (Via Pia), focussing on Piazza Montecavallo (Quirinale), Rome.
- in particular, the expanding sectors of fan-like design of avenues radiating from afocal point..
Both these elements re-inforce the 'ideological system' of the Baroque City', its basic concepts being:
centralisation of political power
continuity and
extension
The two elements have great representative symbolic quality in that they represent the rising power of centralising forces in the political field during the Baroque.
3. Uniform urban districts
- whose architectural appearance is subordinated to an overall 'programme' or 'ordinance'.
- buildings are no longer individual: they lose their plastic individuality and become part of a superior system or idea.
- they have to submit to a programme which establishes the general character of the design of an entire street or district.
e.g. Rue Castiglione toward Place Vendome, Paris
- 17th and 18th C. saw emergence of long and ordered facades (facades ordonnances)
The Rediscovery of Spatial Totality, Unity
The apparent paradox in Baroque Urbanism between the emphasis on partial plans rather than on the development of the whole on and the desire for architectural and illusionistic expansion resulted in the triumph of the latter and the rediscovery of an urban totality which the Renaissance had striven for.
There is no doubt that the planned, practical, and localised achievement, rather than the total centralized ideal plan of the Renaissance, dominates the Baroque.
"It is the embellishment of the existing towns rather than the building of novel cities, which is typical, and in this sense the Baroque is characterised by expansion rather than unfettered creation".
Helen Rosenau
However, the Baroque embellishments of parts of urban districts involved the development of focal points on which converged and from which radiated straight wide avenues. Such developments exerted a formative influence i.e.
a. they were capable of giving shape to and causing development to surrounding adjacent urban elements.
b. their dynamic quality - movement - achieved a new relationship between buildings and spaces.
The designer's eye now reached from a number of viewpoints to infinity, and regarded each design as having the potential of unlimited expansion.
The axis of vision remains the architectural axis along which urban development takes place (as in the Renaissance).
Now, however, it is combined with a strong desire for movement and expansion.
Therefore, although Baroque planners were concerned with a diversity of partial plans (independent embellishment projects) rather than the development of the town as a whole, they regarded and treated these partial plans as capable of possible expansion (remember the notion of cause and effect; detail to general/total) hence they enhanced these schemes by effects which suggested architectural and illusionistic expansion - and often achieved these.
note: this was achieved by vistas to infinity or far distant focal points.
Baroque urbanism thus rediscovered urban totality by way of the perspective and the axis of vision, not so much because of any practical and rational thoughts on cities but simply for reasons of pure formalism and aesthetic preference which considered the city as a grand composition.
International Quality
Because of its purely formal aesthetics, the Baroque became an international art form valid throughout the western world. It lasted as long as the social and human requirements for it remained the same; as soon as these had disappeared, the living theatre of the 'grand manner', this illusionary prop lost in meaning and importance.
Examples:
Champs Elysees, Paris
Washington Monument & Lincoln Reflecting Pool
Washington Mall
Parliamentary Triangle, Canberra
Ave. 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires, (140 m. wide)
St. Petersburg, Dzerzhinsky Ave., focussing on Admiralty
Reforma Boulevard, Mexico City
Belvedere & Schonbrunn Palaces, Vienna
Achievements of the Baroque
The basic human attitudes and the social life of the Baroque Age have been often labelled with such terms as 'system' 'centralization' 'extension' and 'movement'.
These terms are equally applicable to Baroque Art, Architecture and Urban Design.
1. The discovery that monumental projects can influence their environment.
2. The rediscovery of the 'total concept' in urban environment by way of its formal aesthetics.
Axis of vision becomes architectural axis: with vistas to 'infinity', multiple viewpoints, balance of spatial elements, and showing of the unreal by realistic means (Illusionism).
The Baroque city has a dynamic, open character, which is also expressed in its inner structure: its wide, straight streets allow for increased traffic of people and vehicles and its desire for systematization (programme)
3. The discovery of a basic urban design sequence (or order), namely the experience of a spatial progression from:
Gate > Street > Piazza > Monumental Building or focus Prelude > Introduction > Meeting > Climax
Example:
Hertsen Street to Palace Square to Winter Palace, St.Petersburg
Cascade & Watergarden, Peterhof, outside St. Petersburg
4. The discovery that nature can play a vital part in the townscape
- especially in the form of parks and gardens, grottos, ponds and lakes; as a succession of light and dark.
ROME
SIXTUS V and the Urban Transformations of Baroque ROME
1585-90
Sixtus V introduced the Baroque, for ever shhattering the urban scale of the Renaissance. The limited, wall-girded, starshaped, and static side-by-side concept of Renaissance urban space was superseded by a dynamic movement system.
Domenico Fontana was the architect who closely collaborated with Sixtus in the transformations of the cityscape.
Aim of the Transformations:
Political, social and economic, the specific objectives being:
1. Ecclesiastical
To link the 7 main churches and holy shrines which had to be visited during a day's pilgrimage, by a network of main streets which was also to integrate the various pieces of construction by earlier Popes.
To this end, Sixtus and Fontana embarked on a plan to physically and visually link:
(a) the 5 original churches
San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter's)
Santa Maria Maggiore
San Giovanni in Laterano
San Paolo fuori le Mura
San Lorenzo fuori le Mura
(b) the 2 churches accorded special veneration later
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
San Sebastiano
This was to be the completion of the work started by Boniface VIII, 300 years earlier.
2. Practical
To repopulate the hills of Rome by providing them with the direct water supply lacking since the cutting of the ancient aqueducts, and offering tax incentives to would-be settlers.
3. Visual
To create an aesthetic unity out of the often disparate buildings forming the street and public spaces.
Plan of Rome showing the principal elements of the street network developed by Pope Sixtus V as part of his masterplan for the urban transformations of rome 1585 to 1590.
(after Giedion)
The Master Plan and its elements
Sixtus V intended to establish a basic over-all design structure which would ultimately weld together all earlier developments.
The following 'elements' formed part of his master plan:
STRADA FELICE 1585-1586
now: via Sistina
via delle Quattro Fontane
via Agostino Depretis
via Carlo Alberto
via Conte Verde
via S.Croce in Gerusalemme
This great axis slopes down from the summit of the Pincio gardens and the church of S.Trinita dei Monti, then climbs up again to the obelisk in front of the church of S. Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline Hill. It continues beyond the hill, in an undeviating line to the church of S.Croce in Gerusalemme.
It is 4 Km long and wide enough for 5 carriages to ride abreast.
The final stretch, from the Pincio downward to the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo, was never completed as intended.
The famous Antoine Lafrey engraving of 1575 shows quite accurately the ancient walls of Rome and some of its monuments and, on an enlarged scale the seven churches which were the object of the pilgrimage.
Pope SIXTUS V's plan envisaged a movement system between these focal points.
Main Elements of Sixtus' Masterplan:
VIA GREGORIANA
now: via Merulana
Originally built by Sixtus' predecessor, Gregory XIII (1572-85) it was widened and straightened by Sixtus to provide a straight link between the church of S.Maria Maggiore and the obelisk (1588) in front of the Lateran Palace and S. Giovanni in Laterano.
NEW ROAD FROM COLISEUM TO THE LATERAN
now: via San Giovanni in Laterano
Connection from Strada Felice to S. LORENZO FUORI LE MURA
now: partly obliterated by the 19th century railway yards and partly by via dei Ramni and via Cesare de Lollis.
VIA PANISPERNA
Providing access to the old city by leading from S.Maria Maggiore, directly to Trajan's column and the Piazza San Marco ( Now Piazza Venetia)
RAISING AND LEVELLING OF THE STRADA PIA
now: via d. Quirinale, and via XX Settembre
built by Pius IV (1559-65) to connect the Piazza Quirinale to the Porta Pia.
Sixtux V cut away the visual obstructions (hillocks) between those two termini, lower ring the grade by 1 m in parts.
INTERSECTION STRADE PIA / STRADA FELICE
Although not a right angle, this carefully traced intersection, lost any sign of its deviation by the placement of 4 fountains, one at each corner, thus emphasizing the importance of the crossing.
The spot has added interest, as it affords vistas in all four directions
THE NEW SQUARES
Sixtus created squares in front of his new buildings and wherever his new streets joined, leaving ample space for later development:
Piazza Quirinale
Piazza delle Terme
Piazza Colonna
Improvements to Urban Hygiene
Sixtus introduced dust carts for the systematic removal of household refuse and improved the city's drainage.
He built a new 20 Km water main to supply the hills east of the river and leading to his Moses Fountain.
A public laundry was established on what is now the Piazza delle Terme
Projected but not carried out by Sixtus V
Link from S. Giovanni in Laterano to S. Paolo
Link from S. Lorenzo to Via Viminale ( Villa Montalto)
Link from S. Giovanni in Laterano to S.Croce
The Speed of Implementation
When Sixtus came to power he knew that he had to hurry in order to implement the transformations he had planned for his city. He worked feverishly, often carrying out several urban projects simultaneously. He died aged 69 after 5 years in office.
Sixtus V and Domenico Fontana, his principal architect, created the basic Baroque structure of Rome as it still is today and the framework within which subsequent urban developments had to be integrated.
Conclusion
Sixtus V and Fontana's work occurred in the late 16th century, interestingly, at a period of artistic low ebb between the time of Michelangelo and the later period of Bernini.
It is a period in which planning and urban design far surpassed architecture; for example, Domenico Fontana's Vatican and Lateran Palaces are sober, colourless institutional buildings, which owe their identity only to their monumentality and clear proportions whereas his planning work was truly inspired.
Sixtus and D. Fontana provided the framework within which the Popes and their Nepotists of the 17th and 18th centuries created their family palaces e.g.:
Palazzo Barberini 1629-33
by Maderna, Bernini and Borromini, with its Piazza Barberini and the Bernini Triton Fountain, is much influenced in its position and design by the Strada Felice. The piaza is a rhythmic element in the progression to the four fountains at the Strada Pia crossing.
Palazzo Pamphili
Palazzo Borghese
Villa Colonna
Villa Ludovisi
Villa Borghese
Villa Guistiniani
Each of the great Popes of the 17th century developed his own city planning or, rather, neighbourhood planning policy:
Pope URBAN VIII, Barberini (1633-44)
- palace in Via Felice precinct
- new bastions around Gianicolo and Trastevere
Pope INNOCENCE X, Pamphili (1644-55)
- created the new Piazza Navona
Pope ALEXANDER VII, Chigi (1635-67)
- worked on Piazza del Popolo, Piazza San Pietro, renewal of overall Piazza Santa Maria della Pace
- had a wooden model of the city in his study kept up-to-date.
Case Studies:
PIAZZA NAVONA
An example of the many elaborate designs of the Baroque in which villas, palaces, squares and churches become escapes into worldly paradises.
Evolution of the Piazza Navona
Originally stadium of Circus Domitianus (81-96 A.D.)
- boat shape (nave) gave it its name
- kept clear, internally, throughout medieval period; enclosing buildings remained low scale grid integrated into terraced structures; used for festivals
- most popular square in Rome, served as market.
Popes Innocence X (Pamphili)
- born there; bought more land to build his family palace there.
- this gave opportunity to completely rebuild S. Agnese church next door (1652-1677) and to open its main portals toward the square. As the piazza was long and narrow there was nothing to draw the eye to the church facade, Architects Rinaldi and Borromini gave the church a cupola and designed the facade to blend in with the surrounding buildings. They did not consider the center as the predominant viewpoint but designed the perspectives from oblique angles all around the square.
- Piazza Navona became Papal Church Square at the same time
Quattro Fiume Fountain (1646-51) with 16th century Moor Fountain by Borromini (south) and19th century Neptune fountain (north)
- commissioned by Innocent X to be built in middle of square, who saw fountain as symbol of Papal hegemony, spiritual as well as
temporal
- The four great rivers (Nile, Danube, Rio de la Plata, Ganges) are represented by animals or trees and point in the direction of the world in which church hoped to have propaganda successes.
- The 16m high obelisk in centre of the composition is seen as a concrete allegory of the macrocosm and the immaterial world, which has descended into the material world. The political allegory was widely understood: it contains the self-display of the Pamphili Pope and the function of the city of Rome. This was repeated elsewhere in many forms.
On its apex is a dove instead of a cross; being heraldic sign of the Pamphilis and symbol of the Pax Christinia.
Piazza Navona is a completely closed piazza, very calm, with no traffic whatsoever. In the middle of conservative buildings the undulating facade of the church and the three sculptural groups give the square its exceptional brilliance. Its charm lies in the contrast between the neutral background and the dynamic flow of water.
PIAZZA DI CAMPIDOGLIO, ROME
The Capitoline Hill Square Development by Michaelangelo
Background
A masterpiece of urban design, situated on Rome's capitoline hill, providing the link between the Renaissance and the Baroque in Rome.
The scheme, although conceived by Michaelangelo in the 1540's, did not really get underway until after his death in 1564 and took a hundred years to complete.
Existing Site Conditions
- the Capitoline hill had been the centre of gravity of the Roman Empire, being the seat of the Senate in Roman Republican days and originally a religious precinct.
- it became an unsightly, neglected space in Medieval Rome but was still used as political centre but remained partly in ruins from late 7th century.
- the site was a shapeless and uneven terrain: a nightmare in the design conscious Renaissance era.
Elements:
Palace of the Capitol (later Palazzo del Senatore)
- the first senators palace emerged on the ruins of the antique State Archives, the Tabularium, in 1145
- from 1299 on, rebuilt several times but dilapidated by early 15th century
The introduction of local government in 1143/44 included the reintroduction of the senate and the revival of the notion of the capitoline hill being a seat of power.
Palazzo dei Conservatori (with medieval arcaded facade)
- located immediately west of Senator's Palace
- was renovated in 1429 by Pope Nicholas V
- the two palaces stood at an angle of 80° to one another, determining the future trapeze shaped square.
Church of S. Maria in Aracoeli
- 1290, some distance to N-W of Senator's Palace.
Number of Statues
- including equestrian MARCUS AURELIUS statue
- 1471 Sixtus IV had begun displaying surviving marble statue of Antiquity on capitol but in a confused arrangement. (In medieval days this statue believed to represent Constantine.)
Catalyst
- 1536 Pope Paul lll commissions Michaelangelo to prepare a design for a comprehensive redevelopment (i.e. a monumental square) for this eyesore.
Design Concept
Michaelangelo's design has been called "... a great intellectual achievement - one of the great masterpieces of all times" (E. Bacon) and is regarded as a prototype for later Baroque work.
The basis of the design was:
(a) a line of force running along central cross-axis of the P. dei Senatore
(b) a focal point in the repositioned bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius erected along this principal axis.
1538 Michaelangelo adopts this design to pull the chaos into order.
1550 Proposals published.
Little progress made before Michaelangelo's death in 1564.
1664 Final completion of original scheme, under direction of Giacomo della Porta, Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi, with major departure from Michaelangelo's design.
Design Measures
1. Area cleared of shops, houses, and many ruins.
2. Palazzo dei Senatore
- completely remodelled and medieval angle towers and
battlement parapets replaced by new central bell tower (27 m high) and a new symmetrical facade containing main entrance on the principal design axis reached by symmetrical ornamental staircase (symmetrical about principal design axis).
- Senator's Palace with its 27m height dominates the other two palazzi.
3. Palazzo dei Conservatori
- 1537-1570 - given new 20 m high Renaissance facade compatible with that of P. dei Senatore.
4 . Capitoline Museum (Palazzo Nuovo)
- 1603-1654 - built to provide a symmetrical balance to the P. dei Conservatori., to the facade of which it corresponded.
- its siting repeated the angle set between the two existing palaces, occupying the empty side of the design axis.
Continuity was achieved by common use of Corinthian pilasters on all 3 building facades.
5. New Access Stairs
- extended down hill along principal axis link to the Piazza d'Aracoeli below.
6. Oval Paving Design
- oval paving design element plays important part in dramatic progression of the design. - a network of travertine bands anchored the squares surface area
- tied in the various elements of compositions on various levels of site by way of a two-dimensional star-shaped paving pattern and three- dimensional projections (3 subtly raised steps).
- paving rises slightly toward the equestrian statue.
7. Statues
- use of free standing sculpture (statue) as central focus was innovative: Michaelangelo had liberated the statue from its traditional placement as part of or close to building.
- strengthened the unity and coherence of the design.
Assessment:
- showed how 'space' itself can be subject of design.
- richness of forms heralded arrival of Baroque and the shattering of Renaissance's limited urban scale.
- static side-by-side concepts of Renaissance was superseded by a dynamic movement system.
- unlike Renaissance squares, the Campidoglio square design does not aim to balance spatial elements on its various sides; instead, they are organised in relation to a central axis rising comfortably from the city side.
- the divergence of the two flanking palaces, hardly noticeable in reality, ensures that the Senators' Palace is not framed (constricted) within a perspective vista. The spatial sequence is not closed (terminated) but leads past the two ends of the Senator's Palace.
- the reverse vista from the Senator's Palace results in the opening toward the city not dominating.
- design reflects a number of design principles still valid today, e.g.
DEPTH OF FIELD
•created by the trapeze shaped widening of the square toward the Senators Palace
•draws visitor into the space
ESCALATION OF SCALE
•through the strong accentuation of the horizontal elements of the two side palaces which are situated below the corresponding horizontal elements of the Senators Palace
ORDER
•the order is created in spite of the variety, multiplicity of design elements by way of the vertical pillars - which are common to all three buildings .
ST. PETER'S SQUARE PIAZZA DI S. PIETRO
(1656-1665 by Giovanni Lorenzo BERNINI for Pope Alexander VII)
The Basilica of St. Peter's (BASILICAN CHURCH OF SAINT PETER'S)
The Borgo district on right bank of Tiber between the Janiculum in the south and Monte Mario in the north, was known in antiquity as 'Ager Vaticanus'.
Ager Vaticanus
- chosen by Caligula (AD 37-41) for his circus
- enlarged by Nero (54-86) and known as Circus of Nero
(just south of basilica of St. Peter)
- came to be called Borgo (borough) a name of Germanic origin.
History
326 The original church of St. Peter's was built on this site by Emperor Constantine. TTime has taken its toll on the church and the surrounding district known as the 'borgo'.
850 Stronghold of the papacy from 850 when Leo IV surrounded it with a line of 40' high wall against Saracens, until 1586, when formally incorporated into the city of Rome.
855 known as Civitas Leonina or Citta Leonina; this became papal citadel.
During the 'Babylonian Captivity (1308-78)' it fell into ruin when Popes returned from Avignon they chose Vatican as their residence instead of the Lateran.
1506 Construction of a new St. Peter's begun; plans altered frequently during the following 120 years period of construction.
Popes Eugenius IV, Sixtus IV, Julius II and Leo I were active in developing the Borgo as well as the Vatican.
Julius II wanted a new magnificent monument to reflect Papal power, christian religion, the Latin race, and to serve (originally) as his tomb.
1506 Bramante had winning entry in competition for the new 'monument', originally conceived St. Peter's as centralised plan or Greek Cross. His dome was based on the Pantheon plus a peristyle and lantern.
Foundation Stone laid that year.
1513 On the Pope's death, Bramante was succeeded by series of other great architects who did not last long but kept altering the plan shape of the proposed basilica:
da SANGALLO
Fra GIOCONDO
RAPHAEL • proposed plan in shape of LATIN CROSS
PERUZZI • his successor, reverted to GREEK CROSS.
1513- Leo X [Medici] promotes building of St. Peter's by selling
1520 indulgences; this was to lead to Reformation.
1527 sacking of Rome by Emperor Charles V leads to funds running low and troubles in the church state.
Borgo deserted and poor, least populated quarter of Rome. Popes only case for Vatican embellish.
1536 A da SANGALLO the younger, proposed slightly altered plan
1546 MICHAELANGELO , 72 years old succeeds on Sangallo's death
- present building owes much to his genius
- plan reverted to Greek Cross
- strengthened piers of the dome
- redesigned surrounding apses, chapel
- planned and begun construction of great Dome: 137.5 feet diameter (drum completed when died in 1564)
- dome completed by Domenica Fontana and G. della Porta.
1586 Borgo formally incorporated into the city of Rome.
Sixtus V returns borgo to city, i.e. relinquishes papal claim.
1607 CARLO MADERNA
- lengthened the nave to form Latin Cross
- added the gigantic facade with its monumental order of Corinthian
pilaster giving unity of design.
St. Peter's Square designed by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, 1598-1680
Carlo Maderna, who is responsible for the Baroque facade of the church, had already planned a fore-court; however, in relation to the height and width of the facade, the intended depth of the forecourt would have been inappropriate.
Bernini's great achievement was to create a spatial relationship between St. Peter's dome and its environs.
BERNINI'S DESIGN THEORY
St. Peter's square is the most dramatic example of Bernini's contention thatevery building, irrespective of the way it was set into its surroundings, will seize upon and change the face of its environment. He believed that:
a An edifice is first made and moulded by the world around it and subsequently it will itself begin to act on its surroundings. Action and Reaction place buildings through their immediate environment into a creative relationship with the city as a whole.
b The magnitude and range of the influence exerted by any one building will depend on a number of factors e.g. its size will certainly determine its area of influence.
He succeeeded in designing a great ideological square - the colonnades enclosing the oval space on two sides symbolize the 'open and embracing' arms of the Church.
Bernini demolished the old buildings opposite ther main facade of St. Peter's to make room for his spatial sequence, created 1655-1667 under Pope Alexandre VII (he also worked for his predecesors, Innocence X).
The design of the square itself was not as difficult as its relationship to the existing facade by Maderna, which is a little dwarfed and upstaged by Michaelangelo's dome and which is awkwardly proportioned: it appears a little too wide in relation to its height !
Bernini resorted to optical laws, perspective and optical illusion - so loved by the Baroque - to overcome the problem.
Bernini worked within these constraints:
1 entrance to Vatican Palace had to be preserved: a covered walk was to be provided for state visits during inclement weather; this meant that the Piazza Retta, the space immediately in front of the baslica's main facade, had to be incorporated in the total design concept.
2 the 'benediction loggia', immediately above the central portal, from which the Popes give their blessing 'urbi et orbi' had to be visible to as large a crowd as possible.
3 the position of the obelisk, (removed from Egypt by Caligula) erected in 1586 by Domenico Fontana under great difficulty, was not to be moved for a second time.
Fortunately, Maderna had managed to align the extended axis of the church with the obelisk by tilting his main facade a few degrees off being parallel with the nave of the basilica. Bernini was thus spared a problem with symmetry. The obelisk thus becomes the focus of St. Peter's square and determines the distance of the square's centre point from the facade of the church.
FOUR SPATIAL ELEMENTS OF BERNINI'S SCHEME
1. Prelude
The prelude or introduction consists of a straight approach road, an avenue leading from the Tiber and the Castel S. Angelo toward the main facade of the Basilica.
the 1937 VIA DELLA CONZILIAZONE
The present approach was created during Mussolini's regime: the intervening house blocks were pulled down and new buildings were erected to flank the new, and wider street. The result is seen as disastrous: the new vista is too long and wide and much of the drama of St. Peter's is lost as it appears almost insignificant at the end of such a long approach.
Its construction resulted in elimination of the Borghi Nuovo and Vecchio and the buildings between them erased.
2. Introduction
The PIAZZA RUSTICUCCI, a forecourt at the end of this approach was never finally completed and is represented only in part by Mussolini's avenue of the late 1930's ; now known as Piazza PIO XII.
3. The Meeting
The following two spaces were built according to Bernini's design and under his supervision.
PIAZZA OBLIQUA (196m - 142m)
- the major element of the design concept; the principal ellipse - shaped expanse which can accommodate 300,000 people and which is enclosed by two monumental semi-circular, four-fold Tuscan colonnades of 284 pillars, 88 attached pillars, 140 statues, and defining 3 passage ways, the centre-most passage being wide enough for 2 lines of vehicular traffic.
- on the transverse axis (to the longer main axis running through the basilica) are located 2 fountains (designed by Maderna) the obelisk and the projections on the colonnades; similar projections emphasise the corners of the colonnades.
- the design of the Piazza Obliqua with its pure, classical colonnades, was influenced by:
•Vitruvus' contention that the Forum in Antiquity was surrounded by uniform porticoes.
•the model of the antique Templum in Antis in which the entrances are designed as gable ends.
•the shape of Arenas in Antiquity.
- Alexander VII wanted an unusual design concept that allowed comparison with classical antiquity only; nevertheless the square is not a literal copy of any urban space of antiquity but it is an original Baroque idea.
- the ground surface/pavement slants toward the centre, the focus of the radiating paving design which emphazises the north-south axis (slightly more) to balance the main thrust to basilica.
PIAZZA RETTA
- wedge-shaped, immediately in front of the basilica, is flanked by two side tracts converging towards and attached to the colonnades.
- it is 'trapeze-shaped' like Michaelangelo's Campidoglio, which gets narrower at the far side of the principal facade thus making it look smaller.
- the basilica's facade is framed like a stage set - a specific Baroque solution contrasting with the courtyard like squares of the Renaissance.
- at the end of colonnades, the piazza begins a smooth rise toward the church. At the same time pillars in the exterior row of both arms of the colonnade get wider, creating a reverse perspective to lead the visitor to the facade via the Piazza Retta.
4. The Climax
The Basilica with Maderna's imposing facade represents the climax of this grand spatial sequence.
The facade has a height/width ratio of 1 : 2.7, the excessive width virtually dwarfs the facade.
In order to heighten the appearance of the facade, Bernini:
•restricted the height of his colonnade to 1/2 that of the church
•created a visual barrier with the use of a reverse perspective.
•raised the level of the square 3.5m above that of the Piazza Obliqua.
Comment
Bernini himself spoke of the enclosing elements of the square as 'Embracing Arms'.
St. Peter's square, according to him, was to represent a motherly welcome to the multitudes, the believers, in order to strengthen their faith and the heretics, in order to bring them back to it.
140 saints from all the world are placed on the colonnades and wings of the Piazza Retta; they represent the 'orbis sanctus' (the holy earth's orbit).
The obelisk also has symbolic meaning: its four sides represent allegoric relationships with the cosmos and, in addition, it is a triumphal sign of the resurrection of Christ according to the inscription on its base.
PIAZZA DEL POPOLO
Situated between the Tiber, on the west and the steep slopes of the Monte Pincio, on the east, immediately behind the Porta Flaminia (built in the Aurelian Wall, 272 AD) the northern gate to the city.
Pope SIXTUS V's objectives had been to:
1. Clear slums, create new street frontages for redevelopment.
2. Embellish northern entrance to the city by giving it prestige and grandeur. Most pilgrims to city arrived through this northern gate, from which 3 major radials directed them to the more important focal points within the city.
The 3 major radial roads converge on the piazza
1. Via del Corso
- the ancient Via Flaminia, the main axis of Rome, leading up to the northern slopes of the capital, about 1.5 Km long.
2. Via Ripetta, 1516
- runs southward for about 1 kilometre skirting a bend in the Tiber, then on to the Ponte d'Angelo and ultimately to St. Peter's.
- formerly a narrow street, it was straightened and widened by Leo X (1513-21) and known as Via Leonina.
3. Via del Babuino
- for a long time, an inconsequential narrow, irregular lane along the foot of Monte Pincio.
- it was straightened, widened and corrected by Paul III (1534- 49) on such an alignment, that it intersects the Via Flaminia at the same angle and at the same point as the Via Ripetta, i.e. in the Piazza del Popolo.
- the Via del Babuino was cut south-eastwards through slum districts, leading in a straight line across the Piazza di Spagna (then Piazza Trinitatis) to the Quirinal Hill, the second palace of the Popes.
History of Development:
16th Century
1586 Sixtus V, hoped in vain to bring his new Strada Felice right into the Piazza del Popolo across the steep slopes of Monte Pincio.
1589 Domenico Fontana, under Sixtus V, erects the red granite obelisk at the focalpoint of the piazza. (Brought from Egypt by Augustus in 10 BC)
Note: Many references incorrectly state that the obelisk was positioned before the Via del Babuino was planned.
The 'Porta del Popolo' replacing the former Porta Flaminia was erected by Sixtus, in the same year.
The Piazza remained an undistinguished vacant space in an area of general confusion and squalor until the architect Rainaldi saw the great possibilities of the site.
17th Century
Carlo Rainaldi was commissioned to design two virtually identical churches, to be placed at the two angles formed by the 3 radiating streets. The churches were:
Santa Maria dei Miracoli (west)
Santa Maria di Monte Santo (east)
and built by Rainaldi, and completed in 1661 in collaboration with Bernini and Carlo Fontana.
The square's stretched trapezoidal shape was maintained as a composition emphasising the radial axes (avenues) leading into Rome.
'It is symptomatic of the rise of Renaissance materialism over medieval mysticism that the twin churches' individual function as places of worship was apparently subordinated to their collective function as components of architectural balance and adornment.'
The churches belong neither to the street nor to the square, they link them, however, and relate the streets to each other and the obelisk.
19th Century
1816- Giuseppe Valadier, French architect, is commissioned by Napoleon
1820 to re-design the square into a transverse oval; Valadier draws the Pincio Hill and gardens into the square composition by a series of ramps(steps) and terraces leading up to Pincio Hill, on the east (influenced by St. Peter's Square).
Note: the square's form produced a good traffic pattern, its 2 semi-circular wall sections creating 2 pedestrian zones.
SCALA DI SPAGNA SPANISH STEPS
Designed by Alessandro Specchi and Francisco De Sanctis , 1721-25
The Spanish Steps comprise the 135 steps leading up from the Piazza de Spagna to the church of Santa Trinita dei Monti. Their design is a masterful example of rich use of land form within a narrow confined space.
The scheme is the terminus of one leg of a cross connection from the Porta di Ripetta, the Via Condotti (Julius III, 1550-55 originally built it under the name of Via Trinitatis).
The Piazza di Spagne, a triangular space formed by the oblique junctions of five streets, is the departure point of the steps which run upward in a curved flights adjusted to the slope with their axial directions subtly varied to lead to the obelisk at the top, standing in front of the church facade.
The Stairs were intended as a widely visible monument in the heart of Rome in honour of the French King and in memory of its donor, Etienne Gueffier, the 'chargé d'Affaires' of the French Embassy. They were constructed by the monks of the French monastery of SS. Trinita dei Monti, F. de Sanctis being their house architect.
The church of SS. Trinita dei Monti, presented to the city in 1585 by Sixtus V, made the desirability of an axis:
CHURCH - OBELISK - FOUNTAIN (Barcaccia) - VIA CONDOTTI
even stronger (need for link to Pincio Hill on eastern boundary had long been recognised).
Link Strada Felice > P. del Popolo
The Spanish Steps also serve as a substitute for the projected extension of the Strada Felice; they receive the northern thrust of the space of the Strada Felice, direct it downward to the lower level of the Via del Babuino, which in turn conducts it to the Piazza del Popolo, an objective of Sixtus V's original design. These steps are a splendid 3-dimensional connector of a movement system which functions in two planes.
The architects Specchi and de Sanctis tore down two blocks of buildings to create this dramatic late Baroque urban pedestrian space. Flanked by buildings of the same height, the cascade of stairs is symmetrically arranged and broken into runs and landings to make ascent less tiring (never more than 12 steps at a time) and to provide small viewing points.
The Steps are articulated into 3 main elements:
1. A wide, lower ascent, divided into three by seating blocks.
2. A wide middle tract which dynamically reaches sideways, leading to the main break in the ascent - the piazza.
3. A wide, curvilinear ascent to the square in front of the church and the obelisk, which deceivingly simulates a non-existent major axis.
Noticeable in the design is the recurring 'trinity' in the use of the principal determining elements:
•3 main elements
•3 large platforms
•steps arranged in groups of 3
all being symbols for the Holy Trinity Church.
Paul Zucker considers that the steps represent "... the climax of stage effects in Roman city planning on a larger scale. Here nature lent a helpful hand to the spatial vision of the planner ... with the staircase, the link between two topographically different levels, becoming the square. The Scala di Spagna is the only example in the history of city planning where a staircase does not merely lead to a square in front of a monumental structure, but where the stairs themselves become the visual and spatial centre".
An Assessment of ITALIAN CITY PLANNING
1450-1815 (Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classicism)
Through its countless examples at home and the work of its masters overseas, Italy influenced: France Spain
Germany Austria
Russia Poland
During the Baroque, Italy finds itself in competition with France and Holland which influence toward the west and northwest, Scandinavia, Russia and Poland.
The influence of these three countries is, nevertheless, up against native forces: be they in Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw or Prague.
Mumford writes: "Towns changed from medieval diversity to Baroque uniformity, from medieval localism to Baroque centralisation, from the absolutism of God and the Catholic church to the absolutism of the temporal sovereign and the national State."
The characteristics peculiar to Italian planning, and also its strengths, are:
1. The 'Rationale' of the theme.
2. The sense for the realities of the local and historic situation.
3. The ability to create plastic-painterly forms.
The Italian work of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque is full of inner tensions:
•between 'rationale' and pragmatism (reality) and •between architectural, structural order and the sculptural, creative urge.
These tensions ensure the liveliness of the Italian city, each of which was a living, lively, organism with a personality of its own. The can be said about every piazza; in fact, about wherever mass and space interacted.
Bibliography Part 6: Baroque in Italy
Principal references are shown in bold.
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Norberg-Schulz, C. (1971) Baroque Architecture, Harry N. Abrams, New York, Chapters 1, 2 and 5.
Papageorgiou, Alexander, (1971), Continuity and Change-Preservation in Planning, Pall Mall Press, London.
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