Piazza del Popolo is one of the most famous squares in Rome. This piazza is the last major achievement, and among the most spectacular, of papal Rome. The urban structure of the area is tied to the history of pilgrimages, particularly those related to the celebrations of the Holy Year. In fact, the Porta Flaminia, the northern entrance to the city, was an obligatory throughway for the majority of pilgrims.
But the beauty of this square, called the “good living room” of the capital, is accompanied by a curious legend that arose in the Middle Ages. In fact, it seems that near the Pincio grew a walnut tree where it was thought that Nero’s ashes had been buried. Precisely for this reason, everyone was convinced that the spirit of the ancient Emperor was at loose in this area! Pope Pasquale II, in 1099, in the middle of the Middle Ages, had the walnut tree destroyed. In its place he built a church dedicated to the Madonna which, as it was built at the expense of the Roman people, was called Santa Maria del Popolo.
However, the most important renovations to the piazza took place in the 17th century, when Bernini was commissioned to reorganize the basilica. The internal façade of the door, and the so-called “twin churches”, Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto, were built.
In the 19th century, Giuseppe Valadier gave the piazza its definitive face, entrusted with the task of preparing the space to welcome the triumphal entry of Napoleon to Rome. Only after the fall of the Napoleonic empire was Valadier given the task of reorganizing the relationship between the piazza and the Pincio hill, which had been opened as the first public park in Rome. It is to him that we owe the tree-lined avenue that climbs to the summit and that at the time became one of the most fashionable walks in the city. He also created the great fountain, still fed by the ancient Virgo Aqueduct.