The
Spanish Steps are a set of steps in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, climbing a steep slope between the
Piazza di Spagna at the base and
Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the
Trinità dei MontiThe church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti is a late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its commanding position above the Spanish Steps which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna...
church at the top. The
Scalinata is the widest staircase in Europe.
The monumental
stairwayStairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000
scudiThe scudo was the name for a number of coins used in Italy until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from the Latin scutum . From the 16th century, the name was used in Italy for large silver coins...
, in 1723–1725, linking the
BourbonThe House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
Spanish Embassy, and the Trinità dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, both located above — to the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in Palazzo Monaldeschi located below. The stairway was designed by architects
Francesco de SanctisFrancesco De Sanctis was a late Baroque Italian architect, most notable for his design of the Spanish Steps in Rome in collaboration with Alessandro Specchi...
and
Alessandro SpecchiAlessandro Specchi was an Italian architect and engraver.Born in Rome, he trained as an architect under Carlo Fontana. He also specialized as an engraver and made a well known series of plates for prints of vedute or views of Rome As an architect, he was influenced by Francesco Borromini...
.
History
Following a competition in 1717 the steps were designed by the little-known Francesco de Sanctis, though
Alessandro SpecchiAlessandro Specchi was an Italian architect and engraver.Born in Rome, he trained as an architect under Carlo Fontana. He also specialized as an engraver and made a well known series of plates for prints of vedute or views of Rome As an architect, he was influenced by Francesco Borromini...
was long thought to have produced the winning entry. Generations of heated discussion over how the steep slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be
urbanisedUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
preceded the final execution. Archival drawings from the 1580s show that
Pope Gregory XIIIPope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...
was interested in constructing a stair to the recently completed façade of the French church. Gaspar van Wittel's view of the wooded slope in 1683, before the
Scalinata was built, is conserved in the Galleria Nazionale, Rome. The Roman-educated Cardinal Mazarin took a personal interest in the project that had been stipulated in Gueffier's will and entrusted it to his agent in Rome, whose plan included an equestrian monument of
Louis XIVLouis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
, an ambitious intrusion that created a furore in papal Rome. Mazarin died in 1661, the pope in 1667, and Gueffier's will was successfully contested by a nephew who claimed half; so the project lay dormant until
Pope Clement XIPope Clement XI , born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was Pope from 1700 until his death in 1721.-Early life:...
Albani renewed interest in it. The Bourbon fleur-de-lys and Innocent XIII's eagle and crown are carefully balanced in the sculptural details. The solution is a gigantic inflation of some conventions of terraced garden stairs.
Piazza di Spagna
In the Piazza di Spagna at the base is the
Early BaroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
fountain called
Fontana della BarcacciaFontana della Barcaccia is a Baroque fresh-water fountain in Rome, Italy in the Piazza di Spagna, just below the Spanish Steps...
("Fountain of the Old Boat"), built in 1627-29 and often credited to
Pietro BerniniPietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor. He was the father of one the most famous artists of Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini....
, father of a more famous son,
Gian Lorenzo BerniniGian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...
, who is recently said to have collaborated on the decoration. The elder Bernini had been the pope's architect for the
Acqua VergineAcqua Vergine is one of the several aqueducts that serve the city of Rome, in Italy, with pure drinking-water. The name derives from the name of its predecessor, Aqua Virgo, which was constructed by Marcus Agrippa in 19 BC, terminating at its castellum at the Baths of Agrippa, and, through a...
, since 1623. According to an unlikely legend,
Pope Urban VIIIPope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...
had the fountain installed after he had been impressed by a boat brought here by a flood of the Tiber river.
In the piazza, at the corner on the right as one begins to climb the steps, is the house where English poet
John KeatsJohn Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
lived and died in 1821; it is now a museum dedicated to his memory, full of memorabilia of the English Romantic generation. On the same right side stands the 15th century former cardinal
Lorenzo Cybo de Mari Lorenzo Cybo de Mari was an Italian Catholic cardinal. He was archbishop of Benevento.Born in Genoa, de Mari was an illegitimate child. According to some sources his paternity was attributed to Domenico de Mari, patrician of Genoa, brother of Teodorina and uncle of Maurizio Cybo. Now it looks...
's palace, now Ferrari di Valbona, a building altered in 1936 to designs by
Marcello PiacentiniMarcello Piacentini was an Italian architect and urban theorist.-Biography:Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini...
, the main city planner during Fascism, with modern terraces perfectly in harmony with the surrounding baroque context.
Uses
At the top the Viale ramps up the
Pincio which is the
Pincian HillThe Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius...
, omitted, like the
JaniculumThe Janiculum is a hill in western Rome, Italy. Although the second-tallest hill in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.-Sights:The Janiculum is one of the...
, from the classic
Seven hills of RomeThe Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the walls of the ancient city.The seven hills are:* Aventine Hill * Caelian Hill...
. From the top of the steps the
Villa MediciThe Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
can be reached.
During Christmas time a 19th-century
cribA crib is an infant bed in American English .Crib may also refer to:*A box crib, a wooden frame used to stabilise a heavy object during a rescue, jacking, construction or moving operation....
is displayed on the first landing of the staircase. During May, part of the steps are covered by pots of
azaleaAzaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...
s. In modern times the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market. The steps are not a place for eating lunch, being forbidden by Roman urban regulations, but they are usually crowded with people. The apartment that was the setting for
The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961) is halfway up on the right.
Bernardo BertolucciBernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
's
BesiegedBesieged is a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci starring Thandie Newton and David Thewlis.It is based on the short story "The Siege" by James Lasdun.-Plot:David Thewlis plays an English pianist/composer living in Rome...
(1998) is also set in a house next to the steps. American singer/songwriter
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
refers to the "Spanish Stairs" in his classic "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (1971).
The Spanish Steps, which Joseph de Lalande and
Charles de BrossesCharles de Brosses, comte de Tournay, baron de Montfalcon, seigneur de Vezins et de Prevessin was a French writer of the 18th century.-Life:...
noted were already in poor condition, have been restored several times, most recently in 1995.
Events and Trivia
On the 20th March, 1986, the first McDonalds restaurant in Italy was opened near the Spanish Steps. Protests there against
fast foodFast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
led to
Carlo PetriniCarlo Petrini , born in the province of Cuneo in the commune of Bra in Italy, is the founder of the International Slow Food Movement...
founding the international
Slow FoodSlow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of...
movement three years later.
On the 13th June, 2007, a 24-year-old man attempted to drive a
Toyota CelicaThe Toyota Celica name has been applied to a series of coupes made by the Japanese company Toyota. The name is ultimately derived from the Latin word coelica meaning "heavenly" or "celestial"....
down the Spanish Steps. No one was hurt, but several of the 200-year-old steps were chipped and scuffed. The driver was arrested and a breath test showed his
blood alcohol contentBlood alcohol content , also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes....
was twice the legal limit for driving.
On the 16th January, 2008, Graziano Cecchini, an Italian artist, covered the steps with hundreds of thousands of multicolored plastic balls. He claimed that it was done to make the world notice the situation of the
Karen peopleThe Karen or Kayin people , are a Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic group which resides primarily in southern and southeastern Burma . The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of approximately 50 million people...
in Myanmar, and as a protest against the conditions of artists in Italy.
On the 9th November, 2009 to commemorate the fall of the
Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
in 1989, a multi-media event was held on the steps which included the erection of replicas of parts of the wall.
Local landmarks
- Keats-Shelley Memorial House
The Keats-Shelley Memorial House is a museum in Rome, Italy, commemorating the Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The museum houses one of the world's most extensive collections of memorabilia, letters, manuscripts, and paintings relating to Keats and Shelley, as well as Byron,...
- Giorgio De Chirico House
The Giorgio De Chirico House is a house museum in the 16th century Palazzetto del Borgognoni at Piazza di Spagna 31 in Rome. The house was acquired by Giorgio de Chirico in 1948. It was left to the state by his widow and opened as a museum in 1998. Only open by appointment, it is closed on Mondays...
- Babington's tea room
Babington's tea room is a traditional English tea shop at the foot of the Spanish Steps, in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, Italy.-History:The shop was founded in 1893 by Isabel Cargill and Anne Marie Babington, two English women, with the intention of catering for the many English-speaking people in...
External links