Tiber Island: The Sacred Ship of Healing

Why is it significant?

Walk across the ancient stone arch of Ponte Fabricio and set foot upon the boat-shaped sanctuary of Tiber Island.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Walk across the ancient stone arch of Ponte Fabricio and set foot upon the boat-shaped sanctuary of Tiber Island. Look down at the river swirling beneath the travertine ramparts: in antiquity, Roman engineers encased the entire island perimeter in smooth white travertine blocks carved to resemble the prow and stern of a colossal trireme warship sailing proudly up the river.

In two hundred and ninety-three before Christ, a catastrophic pestilence ravaged the Roman Republic. An official delegation was dispatched to Epidaurus in Greece to bring back the sacred serpent of Aesculapius, god of healing. When the vessel sailed into Rome, the serpent slid into the water and swam straight to this island, leading the Senate to dedicate the entire rock to healing and medicine.

The medical tradition never ceased over twenty-three hundred years: the Fatebenefratelli Hospital has operated here continuously since the sixteenth century, and during the Nazi occupation of nineteen forty-four, heroic doctors hid dozens of Roman Jews by inventing a fake deadly virus called Syndrome K.

Step across the northern bank into the historic Jewish Ghetto, entering through the monumental ruins of ancient Rome.