Janiculum

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Janiculum

Janiculum (Gianicolo in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
) is a hill in western Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. Although the second-tallest hill (after Monte Mario

Monte Mario

Monte Mario is the highest hill of Rome. It lies in the NW side of the city. The name comes from Mario Mellini, a Cardinal who around the middle of 15th century owned there a villa and several hamlets....
), in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome

Seven hills of Rome

The Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the Servian Wall of the ancient city.The seven hills are:...
, being west of the Tiber

Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometres through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea....
and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.

Janiculum is one of the best locations in Rome for a breathtaking view of the innumerable domes and bell tower

Bell tower

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Encyclopedia

Janiculum (Gianicolo in Italian

Italian language

Rome

Monte Mario

Seven hills of Rome

The Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the Servian Wall of the ancient city.The seven hills are:...
, being west of the Tiber

Tiber

Sights

The Janiculum is one of the best locations in Rome for a breathtaking view of the innumerable domes and bell tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more Bell s, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells....
s that pierce the skyline of the multi-hued architectural museum. Other sights on the Janiculum include the church of San Pietro in Montorio
San Pietro in Montorio

San Pietro in Montorio is a church in Rome, which includes in its courtyard The Tempietto built by Donato Bramante....
, built upon the site formerly thought to be where St Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
was crucified

Crucifixion

Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution , whereby the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead....
; here, the Tempietto, a small shrine

Shrine

A shrine, from the Latin scrinium is a holy or sacred place which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor veneration, hero, martyr, saint or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are veneration or worshipped....
built by Donato Bramante

Donato Bramante

Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St....
marks the supposed site of Peter's death. The Janiculum also houses a baroque

Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
fountain

Fountain

A traditional fountain is an arrangement where water issues from a source , fills a basin of some kind, and is drained away. Fountains may be wall fountains or free-standing....
built by Pope Paul V

Pope Paul V

Pope Paul V , born Camillo Borghese, was Pope from May 16, 1605 until his death....
in the late-seventeenth century, the Acqua Paola, and several foreign research institutions, including the American Academy in Rome

American Academy in Rome

The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome. It was created in 1913 out of a merger between the American School of Architecture and the American School of Classical Studies in Rome ....
and the Academia de España. The Hill is also the location of the Pontifical Urban University and Pontifical North American College

Pontifical North American College

The Pontifical North American College is a Roman Catholic Church educational institution in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1859 by Blessed Pope Pius IX in a former Dominican and Visitation Convent, the Casa Santa Maria, located in the historic center of Rome near the Trevi Fountain....
, as well as the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza" (a botanical garden

Botanical garden

Botanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily to categorize and document for scientific purposes. Botanists and horticulturalists tend the flora and maintain the garden's library and herbarium of dried and documented plant material....
).

History

Ancient history and mythology

The Janiculum was a center for the cult of the god Janus

Janus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Janus was the God of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes: the month of January, which begins the new year, and the janitor, who is a caretaker of doors and halls....
, and the fact that it overlooked the city made it a good place for augur

Augur

The augur was a priest and official in the classical world, especially ancient Rome and Etruscans. His main role was to interpret the will of the gods by studying the flight of the birds , known as "taking the auspices." The ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society--public or private--includi...
s to observe the auspice

Auspice

An auspice is a type of omen already familiar to the king of Alasia in Cyprus who, in the Amarna correspondence has need of an 'eagle diviner' to be sent from Egypt....
s.

In Roman mythology, Janiculum is the name of an ancient town founded by the god Janus (the two-faced god of beginnings). In Book VIII of the Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
by Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
(Publius Vergilius Maro), King Evander shows Aeneas

Aeneas

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
(the Trojan hero of this epic poem) the ruins of Saturnia and Janiculum on the Capitoline hill near the Arcadian city of Pallanteum (the future site of Rome) (see line 473, Bk. 8). Vergil uses the presence of these ruins to stress the significance of the Capitoline hill as the religious center of the Rome.

The Water Mills

The Aurelian Walls

Aurelian Walls

The Aurelian Walls were city walls built between 271 and 275 in Rome during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus. They enclosed all seven hills of Rome plus the Campus Martius and, on the right bank of the Tiber, the Trastevere district....
were carried up the hill apparently to include the water mills used to grind corn towards providing bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by baking a dough of flour and water. It may be leavened or unleavened. Edible salt, fat and a leavening agent such as yeast are common ingredients, though bread may contain a range of other ingredients: milk, Egg , sugar, spice, fruit , vegetables , Nut or seeds ....
flour

Flour

Flour is a powder made of cereal grains. It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many civilizations, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history....
for the city. The mill was thus probably built at the same time as or before the walls were built by the emperor Aurelian

Aurelian

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus , known in English as Aurelian, Roman Emperor , was the second of several highly successful "soldier-emperors" who helped the Roman Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the beginning of the fourth....
(reigned 270-275 AD). The mills were supplied from an aqueduct, where it plunged down a steep hill. The site thus resembles Barbegal

Barbegal aqueduct and mill

The Barbegal aqueduct and mill is a Roman Empire watermill complex located on the territory of the commune of Fontvieille, Bouches-du-Rh?ne, near the town of Arles, in southern France....
, although excavations in the late 1990's suggest that they may have been undershot rather than overshot in design. The mills were in use in 537 AD when the Goths

Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
besieging the city cut off their water supply. However they were subsequently restored and may have remained in operation until at least the time of Pope Gregory IV

Pope Gregory IV

Gregory IV, pope , was chosen to succeed Pope Valentine in December 827, on which occasion he recognized the supremacy of the Franks emperor Louis the Pious in the most unequivocal manner....
(827-44).

19th century to present

The Janiculum is the site of a battle

Battle

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, wherein each group will seek to defeat the others within the scope of a military campaign, and are well defined in duration, area and force commitment....
in 1849 between the forces of Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italians military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and had to flee Italy after a failed insurrection....
and French

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
forces fighting on behalf of the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
, who sought to restore the dominion of Papal States

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church....
over Rome. Because of this battle, several monuments to Garibaldi and to the fallen in the wars of Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
independence are on the Janiculum as well.

Daily at noon, a cannon fires once from the Janiculum in the direction of the Tiber

Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometres through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea....
to signal the exact time. This tradition goes back to December 1847 when the cannon of the Castel Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo

The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family....
gave the sign to the surrounding belltowers to start ringing at midday. In 1904, the ritual was transferred to the Janiculum and continued until 1939. On 21 April 1959, popular appeal convinced the Commune of Rome to resume the tradition after a twenty-year interruption.

The hill features in one of Respighi

Ottorino Respighi

Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and Conducting. He is best known for his orchestral Roman trilogy: Fontane di Roma - "Fountains of Rome"; Pini di Roma - "Pines of Rome"; and Feste Romane - "Roman Festivals"....
's Pini di Roma

Pini di Roma

Pini di Roma is a 1924 work by the Italy composer Ottorino Respighi, and is considered one of the masterpieces of the Roman Trilogy of symphonic poems along with Feste Romane and Fontane di Roma....
.

Janiculum

Sights

History

Ancient history and mythology

The Water Mills

19th century to present

External links