Via della Conciliazione: The Avenue That Erased a Neighbourhood
Why is it significant?
Turn to face St Peter's and take it in: the long, straight avenue running towards the basilica, the dome swelling at the end, rows of stone lamp posts like little obelisks marching beside you. It is one of the most famous views in the Christian world. And for almost all of history, it did not exist.
Key Facts
| Place | Via della Conciliazione: The Avenue That Erased a Neighbourhood |
|---|---|
| Address | Via della Conciliazione, 00193 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90190, 12.45950 |
| Part of Walk | Pilgrims, Popes and Swiss Guards: Rome's Vatican and the Medieval Borgo |
| Generated | Generated |
Turn to face St Peter's and take it in: the long, straight avenue running towards the basilica, the dome swelling at the end, rows of stone lamp posts like little obelisks marching beside you. It is one of the most famous views in the Christian world. And for almost all of history, it did not exist.
Until the 1930s, the space around you was filled by the Spina di Borgo, a long block of medieval and Renaissance houses, workshops and palaces squeezed between two narrow parallel streets, Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo. Pilgrims threaded their way through those dim lanes and then, suddenly, burst out into Bernini's square, with the facade and the dome exploding in front of them. Architects have always said the effect was a theatrical surprise.
On 11 February 1929, Mussolini's government and the Holy See signed the Lateran Pacts, ending almost sixty years of hostility since the popes had lost Rome to the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. To celebrate this Conciliation, the regime decided on a monumental avenue. In 1936 Mussolini himself struck a symbolic first blow with a pickaxe, and the demolitions began. Families who had lived here for generations were moved out to new suburbs. The architects Marcello Piacentini and Attilio Spaccarelli designed the new street, and it was completed for the Holy Year of 1950.
Not everything was lost. A few palaces were taken apart stone by stone and rebuilt in new positions along the avenue, like stage sets shifted around; others, such as Palazzo Torlonia, survived where they stood. Architects still argue about the result. Many say that Bernini's square was meant to be discovered, not seen from half a kilometre away, and that the avenue flattened the basilica into a postcard.
Decide for yourself. Walk on to the end of the avenue, step over the white stone line set into the ground at the edge of the square, and you will be standing in another country.