Pierleoni Casina

Between the 1920s and 1930s, the urban fabric of this part of the city was disrupted for work on the isolation of the Capitoline Hill (which was freed of all post-Roman structures), and the demolition carried out in the area of Teatro di Marcello and Bocca della Verità for opening the Via del Mare (currently Via del Teatro di Marcello and Via Petroselli). Also disappearing in the demolitions was the small and picturesque Piazza Montanara, once a gathering place for both public scribes and peasants coming from the countryside. Only one of the medieval buildings that stood on the square was spared. It was later called “Casina dei Pierleoni” in reference to the noble Roman family that had resided in the area between the church of San Nicola in Carcere and the Tiber in the 11th century.

Together with the attached tower, the building was also renovated, using architectural elements (such as windows) that had belonged to adjacent demolished buildings. Rather than the precise desire to preserve a fragment of medieval history, the reason for its preservation should probably be traced back to the need to provide an appropriate urban arrangement of the new Via del Mare. The building could contribute to mending the edge of the disrupted area, and the tower, together with the bell tower of San Nicola in Carcere, represented one of the monumental “initial markers” of the new street. The Casina partly preserved the ancient structures on the north side and on the side facing the hill (much remodeled with the presence of some original openings and others repurposed in style) and was complemented by new façades at Via del Teatro di Marcello and Vico Jugario. In 1954, a beautiful image representing Mary Immaculate was placed on the façade of the tower.