Piazza della Chiesa Nuova

In the heart of the Baroque

Situated in the Rione Parione, Piazza della Chiesa Nuova is adjacent to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, the lively artery that runs from Piazza del Gesù to Piazza Pasquale Paoli, next to the Tiber. On one side of the square, in the shade of a tree, on a high pedestal stands the late 19th-century marble statue dedicated to Pietro Trapassi, known as Metastasio, the great poet and librettist born in the nearby Via dei Cappellari. Just a few steps away from extraordinary Baroque treasures - Piazza Navona, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Fountain of the Moor, Palazzo Pamphilj, Sant'Andrea della Valle - the square takes its name from the 16th-century church, officially named Santa Maria in Vallicella. Refined and symmetrical, the church keeps precious works by Pietro da Cortona and Rubens and houses the Chapel of San Filippo Neri, where the 'Pippo bbono', as the Romans nicknamed him, rests, and the evocative rooms of the saint, with some of his relics and memories and paintings by Guercino and Guido Reni.

Geometries, shapes and perspective tricks: Borromini's mastery

In the square, next to the Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, is the splendid Oratorio dei Filippini, a masterpiece by Francesco Borromini, built by the artist after winning a contest announced by the Filippini Fathers in the spring of 1637. A true icon of the Roman Baroque: the unique undulating façade, between concave and convex lines, is characterised by elegant decorations, tall windows framed by tympanums - triangular for the first order and curved for the second - and a curvilinear pediment crowning the imposing building, which creates effects of dynamism and chiaroscuro. The interior houses the prestigious and ancient Vallicellian Library, known as Borromini Hall, which, under the splendid wooden coffered ceiling, keeps over 130,000 volumes, including manuscripts, incunabula, printed books, rare codes, photographs and music on its precious shelves.

An artist's ''tureen

"Ama Dio e non fallire, fa del bene e lassa dire. MDCXXII" (Love God and do not fail, do good deeds and let others talk. MDCXXII) is the inscription on the original fountain in Piazza Chiesa Nuova, which is among the most unusual and little-known ones in Rome. Realised by the architect and sculptor Giacomo Della Porta, also the designer of the nearby Fountain of the Moor and Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Navona, the singular work, decorated on the sides with four bronze dolphins from whose mouths the water of the Virgin Aqueduct gushed out, was placed in Campo de' Fiori in 1595, but soon it became a sort of basin in which washing and keeping cool the fruit and vegetables of the picturesque market of the square. In 1622, the city administration decided to remedy this practice by removing the dolphins and commissioning an unknown artist, also the author of the inscription, to make a large travertine lid that caused the proverbial irony of the Romans: the fountain was thus renamed "Pasticcio" and later "Terrina" for its resemblance to a large tureen. Dismantled in 1889 and forgotten for 35 years in a deposit, in 1924, it was recovered and replaced in its current location, where it continues to intrigue passers-by and tourists with its unusual appearance.

Photo: Redazione Turismo Roma