TIBER EMBANKMENT - LUNGOTEVERE (Full day)
The muraglioni (the massive walls) were built at the end of the nineteenth-century. Up until then, the river was completely navigable, it was possible to fish and bath. The water was drinkable and was used as a motive power.
The tour begins at the Tiber Island. According to tradition, the Tiber Island is founded on a very ancient nucleus of volcanic rock. The structure, in the shape of a ship was emphasized in the 1st century b.C. by the romans, which shaped the sides of the island with travertine, erecting an obelisk in the center used as the mainmast. The “ship” was supposed to resemble Esculapio’s ship, God of the Medicine and his miraculous intervention.
Three bridges link the Tiber Island to the land:
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The Ghetto, which faces the Tiber embankment, is situated between monte of the Cenci and Marcello’s Theatre. It was established in 1555 by Pope Paolo 4th Carafa and abolished, together with the end of the Church State in 1870. It was completely surrounded by a wall, in which three doors were opened in the morning and shut at dusk. During the 17th century, 9.000 habitants lived here in terrible hygienque conditions.
The Synagogue built in 1904, is now, a Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community in Rome. Via del Portico is situated behind the Synagogue and takes its name from the ruins of the ancient porch, built at the end of the 1st century d.C. by the emperor Augustus for his sister. The church of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria can be found inside this monument today. Its name derives from the fish market that was held from the Middle Ages up until the end of the nineteenth century.
The itinerary continues southwards, until we reach the Boario Forum area, antechamber of the beef market, from the Velabro. A marshland, which according to legend is the place where the basket bearing the twins Romulus and Remo was stranded. The legend narrates, that the twins were breast fed by a wolf which later became one of the emblems of the city of Rome.
The dominant monuments of this zone are the Vesta, a circular area dedicated to Hercules and Fortuna Virile dedicated to Portumnus.
Following, we find the Church of Santa Maria to Cosmedin dating back tot the 6th century. Inside the church’s portico, The Mouth of Truth’ (Bocca della Verità) is preserved, a large circular stone representing either a faun’s head or a fluvial divinity with its mouth wide open.
The Castel Sant’Angelo was built at the beginning of the 2nd century by the Emperor Hadrian, as a monumental tomb for him and his successors. The Bridge Elio (Ponte Elio) links it to the left river bank of the Tiber River.
The Bridge Sant’Angelo (Ponte Sant’Angelo) is decorated with ten marble statues representing angels and the symbols of passion of Christ, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Emperor Onorio includes it on the city walls, transforming it, into a small fortress on the riverbank. It becomes a “dependence” of the Vatican in the 13th century and it is Niccolò 3rd who erects the Passetto di Borgo, a covered corridor that links St. Peter to the Castel. The fortress is mainly known as a prison, in which Giuseppe Balsamo and Benvenuto Cellini where locked.
Leaving the Castle of Sant’Angelo behind, we reach Ara Pacis along the Tiber River passing the Palace of Justice (Palazzo di Giustizia). It was built by Augustus, to celebrate the pacification of the Empire after the achievements in Spain and Gaul. The monument was rebuilt in 1938 and originally stood where now, Via in Lucina in Campo Marzio is. In front of the altar, we find the Mausoleum realized by Augustus as a tomb for him and his family.
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