architecture

Architecture in Rome

Rome does not preserve its architecture so much as it accumulates it. At Piazza Navona, Baroque fountains and facades sit atop the foundations of Domitian's stadium — the oval outline of the ancient track still dictates the shape of the square today. Across the river, the Fontana Paola on the Janiculum Hill announces water like a triumphal arch, commissioned to mark the restoration of an ancient aqueduct in the seventeenth century. Down below at Piazza Farnese, the palace façade — partly attributed to Michelangelo — watches over a square paved with stone from the Baths of Caracalla. And the Piazza del Popolo has served as the formal gateway into Rome from the north for centuries, its symmetry still intact. Every surface here is a document.

45 places · Rome, Italy · Editorially curated