PIAZZA NAVONA
A splendid and mythical square where the famous Four Rivers Fountain is located, a baroque masterpiece designed by Le Bernin.
Romans and tourists alike love to stroll along what was once Emperor Domitian's stadium, whose oblong shape (276 m long by 54 m wide) has been preserved. They sit around the fountains or cafés and let themselves be charmed by the musicians... In the center is Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, completed in 1651. This sculptural Baroque masterpiece celebrates four major rivers: the Danube, the Ganges, the Rio de la Plata and the Nile. Directly opposite is the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, designed by Francesco Borromini. Equally splendid, this monument is crowned by a dome and flanked by two campaniles. Its concave façade lends the piazza its serene air. Bernini and Borromini were in constant rivalry at the time, and legend even has it that the Nile statue of the Fountain of the Four Rivers covered its face for fear that Borromini's edifice would collapse!
At the far ends of the square, the Fontaine de Neptune to the north and the Fontaine du Maure to the south date from the late 16thcentury . Until the 19thcentury , the fountains' outlets were plugged to flood the entire square for water games. Renaissance tournaments were a direct result of the site's sporting tradition. To the south-west lies the small piazza di Pasquino, home to Rome's most talkative statue (on one of the walls of Palazzo Braschi), that of Pasquino, famous for being the spokesman of the Roman people.
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