Tor di Nona: The Prison by the River
Why is it significant?
Walk along Via di Tor di Nona, a narrow riverside street with old houses on one side and the high embankment of the Tiber just beyond. You won't find a tower here any more, but for centuries a medieval tower stood near this spot... and the popes used it as a prison.
Key Facts
| Place | Tor di Nona: The Prison by the River |
|---|---|
| Address | Via di Tor di Nona, 00186 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90140, 12.46960 |
| Part of Walk | Caravaggio's Rome: Masterpieces, Brawls and a Killing |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk along Via di Tor di Nona, a narrow riverside street with old houses on one side and the high embankment of the Tiber just beyond. You won't find a tower here any more, but for centuries a medieval tower stood near this spot... and the popes used it as a prison.
Caravaggio knew the inside of Tor di Nona well. The police archives of Rome are full of him: arrested for carrying a sword and dagger without the right papers, for insulting officers, for throwing stones at the guards. After the libel trial of 1603 he spent his two weeks behind bars in this prison, until the French ambassador spoke up for him.
His most famous offence was culinary. In April 1604, in a tavern called the Osteria del Moro, he asked a waiter which of the artichokes on his plate had been cooked in butter and which in oil. The waiter told him to smell them and find out. Caravaggio threw the plate, artichokes and all, in the man's face, and, according to the waiter's complaint, reached for his sword.
Justice was never far away in this corner of the city. A few hundred metres upriver, in the square at the head of the bridge to Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome held its public executions. In September 1599 the young noblewoman Beatrice Cenci was beheaded there before an enormous crowd, for the murder of her violent father. It is often said that Caravaggio was among the spectators, and some see that day in his Judith Beheading Holofernes.
The prison's afterlife is pure Rome. In 1671 a theatre, the Tordinona, opened on the site, with the support of Queen Christina of Sweden, and became the first public opera house in the city. Prisoners out, sopranos in. Now turn your back on the river and walk south-east into the lanes, to the palace where Caravaggio's career really took off.