Architecture in Rome: sights from the Pantheon to MAXXI

The most important sights of architecture in Rome are the Pantheon, the Colosseum, St Peter's Basilica with St Peter's Square and the Baroque churches of Bernini and Borromini. In Rome you can follow two thousand years of Western architecture on foot: the concrete, arches and domes of the Romans, the Renaissance's rediscovery of them in the 16th century, the undulating churches of the Baroque in the 17th century and today's MAXXI from 2010. Fourteen buildings follow here in chronological order, with a walk that ties them together.

Facts

Ancient Rome

The Colosseum, begun under Vespasian and opened under Titus in AD 80, is the largest amphitheatre the Romans built. It stands free on vaults of concrete and travertine, and the half-columns of the façade, on three storeys, show the orders in turn. Beside it stands the Arch of Constantine from AD 315, partly built of reliefs taken from older monuments, and at Trajan's Forum Trajan's Column from AD 113, with a relief that winds upwards telling of the wars in Dacia.

The Pantheon, built under the emperor Hadrian around AD 113–125, is the best-preserved building from ancient Rome, because it became a church in AD 609. The concrete dome is 43 metres in diameter and just as high from the floor, and the only light comes through the opening at the top, the oculus. The inscription on the porch names Marcus Agrippa, who built an older temple on the site. South of the centre lie the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, a bath complex from AD 212–216 with vaults that were once among the largest in the city. The background can be found in the guide to Roman architecture.

The Renaissance: Bramante and Michelangelo

The Renaissance came to Rome around 1500 with Donato Bramante. His little round temple, the Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio, on the site where the apostle Peter was, according to tradition, crucified, was the first building to take up the forms of antiquity in full. Bramante also made the first plan for the new St Peter's Basilica, which was built in 1506–1626. Michelangelo designed the dome, which was completed after his death, and Carlo Maderno lengthened the nave and built the façade.

Michelangelo also designed the Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill, a trapezoidal square with an oval, star-patterned paving and palaces whose pilasters run through two storeys, an early example of the giant order. The square was completed long after his death, and the paving to his design was laid only in 1940. From the square there is one of the best views over the Roman Forum.

The Palazzo Farnese, begun by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in 1517, is the most magnificent Renaissance palace in Rome. Michelangelo took over and designed the heavy main cornice. The palace is today the French embassy. In the Vatican Museums the painting of the Renaissance is found in the same buildings: Raphael's School of Athens and Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel.

The Baroque: Il Gesù, Bernini and Borromini

The Baroque was born in Rome. The mother church of the Jesuits, Il Gesù, built in 1568–1584 to designs by Vignola and with a façade by Giacomo della Porta, became the model for hundreds of churches: a broad nave where everyone can see the altar and a façade that ties the two storeys together with volutes.

In the 17th century two architects competed for the city's attention. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed St Peter's Square with its colonnades and the oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. Francesco Borromini built San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane a couple of hundred metres away and Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza near the Pantheon. The rivalry between them is explained in the guide to Bernini and Borromini. The Spanish Steps from the 1720s and the Trevi Fountain, completed in 1762, are also from the Baroque.

Modern Rome

Rome is not a city one associates with modern architecture, but there is more than one might think. In the southern part of the city the district of EUR was planned for a world fair in 1942 that never took place because of the war, and its austere white buildings are typical of Italian architecture between the wars. Renzo Piano designed the concert hall Auditorium Parco della Musica, opened in 2002. And those who arrive by train are met by Stazione Termini, whose long entrance hall with a wave-shaped roof was completed in 1950.

The best-known modern work is MAXXI in the Flaminio district, a museum of 21st-century art and architecture by Zaha Hadid, opened in 2010. The building consists of long, curved concrete volumes that cross one another, with staircases of black steel that hang in the light under the glass roof. It is a clear example of how contemporary architecture breaks with the right angle; see the guide to Deconstructivism.

A walk through two thousand years

Start at the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine, walk along the Roman Forum and Via dei Fori Imperiali to Trajan's Column and on to Il Gesù. From there it is a short way to the Pantheon and Sant'Ivo, which lie close together, and on to Piazza Navona. The Palazzo Farnese lies south of Campo de' Fiori. On the Quirinal, San Carlo and Sant'Andrea stand on the same street, a couple of hundred metres apart.

St Peter's Square and St Peter's Basilica lie on the other side of the Tiber, and the Tempietto on the Janiculum hill above Trastevere. MAXXI and the Baths of Caracalla require a tram, a bus or a longer walk. All the buildings can be found on the map, and the Italian timeline in architectural history shows how they fit together with the rest of the country.

Not to be missed

Exercise

Which building in Rome has a dome with a round opening, the oculus, at the top?