ROME OF SIXTUS V

During the short reign of Sixtus V (1585-1590), Rome underwent a significant transformation. The city had shrunk during the Middle Ages and the result was a small urban core surrounded by the ruins of the classical Rome as well as by seven churches that received annual pilgrimages. Under this situation, the Catholic Church started to think about the important position of Rome as a cultural and religious center in the world representing the Catholic Church and the Pope and how the city should be a clear representative of it. Several popes started to create and broad streets (like the Via Pia) and to build new gathering spaces like The Piazza Campidoglio by Michelangelo. However, it was Sixtus V who developed a unified vision for Rome instead of uncoordinated single actions. He organized a new circulation scheme based on a coherent network of straight long axis that connected and allowed the creation of new urban spaces. The main works were the creation of new streets, the seven churches of Rome and the Palaces were for the 1st time connected through new streets, the design of squares in front of important buildings like de Quirinal Palace, something new at that time, and the built of four obelisks as focal points in squares to catch the eye at the end of axes in front of the Basilica de San Prieto, in front of the church Sta Maria Maggiori and San Giovanni in Laterano, and in the Piazza del Popolo.

The importance of linking these seven churches is crucial to understand Pope Sixtus V’s design. They were the representation of the Catholic Church power and the interest in connecting them not only followed aesthetic criteria but also it will give order to the chaos of Rome represented for the random placement of these nodal points.

Edmund Bacon (1967:131) argues that this schema of articulating spaces is due to the discovery of perspective drawing during the fifteenth century and which consists on recreating the depth and the relative position of the objects in the space. This new technique allows creating new experiences through a processional movement along the axis of the streets that connect the seven churches of Rome.

The realization of this plan was not finished during Pope Sixtus V reign, and most of the work was done after his papacy. However, his legacy is perfectly visible in Rome today.

    Rome of Sixtus V 1585                           Obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo

Interpretation of the plan of Rome during Pope Sixtus V by Edmund Bacon         Connection between Piazza de Espagna et Sta Maria La
                                                                                                               Maggiori by Edmund Bacon