Piazza Navona: Rome's Baroque Showpiece

Piazza Navona owes its distinctive elongated oval shape not to any Baroque architect, but to Emperor Domitian, who constructed a 30,000-seat athletic stadium on this site around 85 AD. The track measured roughly 275 metres long, and for centuries after Rome's fall, Romans built homes and markets directly on the old stone bleachers — the word "Navona" itself is likely a corruption of in agone, Latin for "in the games." The medieval neighbourhood slowly filled in the terraces while the racetrack floor became one of the city's main open-air markets, a function it held continuously until 1869. When Pope Innocent X commissioned a full redesign in the 1640s, he was essentially gilding a 1,500-year-old skeleton.

The centrepiece of that redesign is Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), unveiled in 1651. Four colossal marble river gods — the Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Río de la Plata — represent the four continents then known to European cartographers, and they recline across a dramatic travertine rock formation from which an ancient Egyptian obelisk rises 16.5 metres. The obelisk, originally made for Rome under Domitian and later moved to the Circus of Maxentius, was recrowned with the Pamphilj family dove, the heraldic symbol of Innocent X. Flanking the square are two companion fountains: the Fontana del Moro to the south, designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575 with Bernini adding the central Moor figure wrestling a dolphin in 1653; and the Fontana del Nettuno to the north, also della Porta's basin, though its vigorous Neptune sculpture group was only added in 1878. Dominating the western flank is Francesco Borromini's Sant'Agnese in Agone (begun 1652), its concave facade and twin bell towers forming a deliberate theatrical counterpoint to Bernini's fountain — the two masters were famously rivalrous, and Roman legend (almost certainly apocryphal) holds that the Nile god shields his eyes to avoid looking at Borromini's church.

Visitors today experience the piazza as a continuously animated stage. Street portraitists and painters set up easels along the perimeter, while the surrounding cafés — including the historic Tre Scalini, birthplace of the tartufo chocolate truffle dessert — spill tables across the ochre paving stones. In December, the square transforms into Rome's most atmospheric Christmas market, a tradition rooted in the 17th-century Festa della Befana, when the square historically hosted toy and sweet vendors on Epiphany eve. The Palazzo Braschi, occupying the southern corner, houses the Museo di Roma and its elegant neoclassical courtyard, well worth a detour.

Piazza Navona is free to enter at any hour, and dawn or late evening offer the best light and the thinnest crowds. The nearest bus stops are on Corso del Rinascimento, a two-minute walk east. Pickpockets are active, especially around the Fountain of the Four Rivers during peak afternoon hours, so keep bags zipped and to the front. Sitting on the fountain edges is prohibited and enforced with fines. For the classic photography angle on the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, position yourself at the northern end of the square looking south, with Sant'Agnese in Agone rising behind the obelisk.