Piazza di Spagna

Speranza




The majestic yet broken rhytms of the famous Spanish Steps -- an upward sweet pf three imposing parallel flights changing to the steep, angular movement of two branching arms which meet on a wide balustraded terrace to divide again, and mount in two broad curves to the church -- is characteristic of an age of great scenic staircases.

Both the steps and the twin-towered facciata were designed by Francesco de Sanctis in 1723-25 as part of a revival of the great town-planning schemes inaugurated by Sixtus V during the last years of the 16th century.

The imposing composition closes an immensely long vist a down the long narrow street leading from the Tiber to the Piazza di Spagna at the foot of the steps.

The odd boat-shaped fountain in the foreground was designed by Pietro, father of the famous sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.

It commemorates the naumachia of Domitian -- mock naval battles which took place on an artificial lake that once occupied the site of this piazza.

The obelisk on the top of the stairway was found in the gardens of Sallust and set up in 1789.

The incorporation of towers into church design is characteristic of the Baroque period as it was alien to both medieval and Renaissance Italian architecture.