Strade rettilinee e processioni barocche nella Roma del settecento

Abstract

Straight streets and baroque processions in the 18th century Rome This article analyses the relationship between the ideal city as conceived by the sovereigns and the architects assisting them in their policies and the practical uses of urban spaces. Since the Renaissance both Italian professionals and rulers especially valued large and straight streets and regular squares and their interventions on the urban grid moved precisely in this direction.The Great plan of Rome, published in 1748 by G.B. Nolli represents the point of arrival and, at the same time, the manifesto of this idea. The popes and their architects presented these transformations as a response to the demand of the public, made both of Roman and of foreign pilgrims, who could thus more easily move from one holy site to another. the practicalbenefits of these new straight streets are however doubtful as processions and pageants hardly used them. the article examines some 50 booklets describing political and religious ceremonies to check their itineraries. Foreign princes and ambassadors entering the city from its northern gate rarely took the long straight avenue of the Corso to its end, under the Capitol Hill. The parade of the papal possession that took place at the very beginning of each pontificate went from the Vatican to St. John in the lateran along the via papalis that included the small and tortuousmedieval streets between the Tiber and the Capitl Hill. And eveb the pilgrim' processions to the seven basinicas moved along traditional paths and ignored the new ones that were supposedly built especially from them. In conclusion the author discusses the relationship between movement and space- both empty and built. The choise of an itinerary is dictated by more complex reasons than the simple availabity of direct and convenient streets