Campidoglio square is situated on top of the hill of
Campidoglio in Rome and it is one of the most beautiful
square of the world.
The public square was planned by Michelangelo Buonarroti
who designed it in all particular features, paving included.
The square has also a particular plant, because Michelangelo
built the palaces to create a perspective.
Michelangelo redesigned completely the square, making
to turn it towards the Basilica of Saint Pietro, which
represented the new political centre of the city. He
thought to build a new palace, called New Palace in
order to close the perspective towards the Church of
Saint Maria in Ara Coeli and he redesigned the Palace
of the Conservatives deleting all the medieval structures,
harmonizing it with the Senatorio Palace to which he
added a double staircase which was important in order
to approach the new income, not turned towards the Fori
but towards the square; Buonarroti planned also the
staircase of the Cordonata and the balustrade facing
on Ara Coeli square.
The statue of Mark Aurelio in golden bronze, previously
situated in Saint Giovanni in Laterano square, came
to the centre of this square according to Paul IIIs
wish; the original statue, after a long restoration
that also has brought back the gilding traces, today
it is conserved in the Capitolini Museums, while on
the square there is its copy.
The Cordonata is adorned with various sculptor works:
to the base there are the statues of two lions; towards
the half of this there is the statue of Cola di Rienzo;
on the top of the staircase there are the statues of
Castore and Polluce, coming from from a temple of the
Dioscuri in the Flaminio Circus and two marble trophies,
called the Trophies of Mario, coming from the ninfeo
of Vittorio square.
The Senatorio Palace is today the centre of the Common
of Rome, while the Capitolini Museums, opened in 1735
(one of the oldest museum of the world) are situated
in the other two palaces, linked by a gallery, the Lapidaria
Gallery.
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