Rome's Historic Hill Among Hills

The Capitoline (Campidoglio) is a hill for the ages. In ancient times it served as the holiest place in the Roman world, from which auguries were best performed, where two of Rome's most important temples stood—those of Juno and Jupiter—and where Rome's armies thanked the gods in triumph after returning from major military victories abroad. The fall of Rome in the fifth century CE set in motion a period of serious decline that reduced the Campidoglio to an abandoned knoll for a time. But as symbolically important and strategically located as the Campidoglio is, it did not remain barren for long. Indeed, the construction of a series of civic and religious structures followed in the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. Then came a definitive reworking of this important area in the mid-sixteenth century under the guidance of Pope Paul III Farnese (r. 1534–49) and his architect Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564). Three buildings, an inspiring piazza, and the elegant cordonata (staircase) ascending from street level to the Campidoglio emerged from this collaboration. Construction of the Palazzo Senatorio, Palazzo dei Conservatori, and Palazzo Nuovo was well underway while Paul and Michelangelo were still alive and was completed after their deaths. The cordonata and piazza were likely completed more quickly, as was a special feature of the new Campidoglio project: the placement of a famous Roman equestrian statue at the piazza's very centre (see fig. 26). When Paul ordered this bronze equestrian statue to be removed from the Basilica di S. Giovanni in Laterano in Rome and placed atop the Campidoglio, there were a number opposed to his decision, including his architect Michelangelo. Nevertheless, the move was carried out, and at the end of 1537, Michelangelo himself was asked to design a pedestal for it. The ultimate consequence was the creation of a new architectural ensemble that was to reshape the city of Rome and become one of the most impressive achievements of Renaissance design.

Michelangelo's plan elicited some groundbreaking commentary and iconographic studies half a century ago.