Rome: a brief history

According to tradition, Rome was founded on that legendary April 21, 753 B.C., on the Palatine Hill. That area was already inhabited, bearing traces of some Early Bronze Age settlements. This first “cell” of the city, the so-called Roma Quadrata, grew to comprise the Aventine, Capitoline, Quarinal, Viminal, Esquiline and Caelian Hills, and was surrounded by a circle of walls (Mura Serviane, after the Emperor Servio Tullio), that was largely rebuilt after 390 B.C., when the city was attacked and pillaged by the Gaul invaders.
During the age of Roman Republic, five centuries between 509 and 31 B.C., Rome rose to great power and was recognized as the queen of the Mediterranean. The city had reached a population of 400 thousand inhabitants in the I century B.C.
During the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 B.C. - 14 A.D.) a massive restoration of the Forum started, and Emperor Nero built a great imperial palace on the Capitol Hill. Later, the city was given a definitive shape by the Emperors of the Flavia Dynasty (69-96 A.D.). In the II century Rome reached the peak of urban and demographic expansion, counting over one million inhabitants.
The third century saw the edification of the Baths of Caracalla; at the same time, Emperor Aurelian, fearing the menace of Barbaric invasions, surrounded the city with a new circle of walls between 271 and 275. This late wall barrier was then expanded up to the year 1870, and these are the very walls that still enclose the historic centre of the city.
Only a few great works were added to the city’s grandeur before Rome lost its role of capital city, when the royal court was moved to Byzantium in the year 330; furthermore the Aurelian wall was not enough to preserve Rome from the Goths in 410 and from the Vandals in 455 and 472.
In the Christian and Byzantine city, an intense building activity compensated the decadence of ancient monuments. Many architectonic elements and precious materials of pre-existing monuments were re-employed in the building of churches.
The first urban work of the Middle Age was still made with a defence purpose, after the Saracen attack and consequent sacking of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s basilicas. Pope Leo IV fortified the city and its suburbs on the right side of the Tiber rising new walls around the Vatican; he also turned Adrian’s mausoleum into a fortress (Castel S. Angelo). Thus, the “Leonine City” was born.
Although the Pope was a ruler to the city, the IX, X and XI centuries represented a gloomy period in the history of Rome, marked by the lengthy struggle of roman noble families among themselves and against the German emperors. In the middle of the XII century the City-state was formed, and many towers and fortresses owned by noble families were risen, often incorporating ancient buildings. At that time, the built-up area of the city covered a quarter of the former territory were citizens used to dwell, with a population ranging between 17,000 and 50,000 inhabitants.
The XIII and XIV centuries saw the strengthening of the Pope autocracy on the city, against the City-state authority and the noble families influence. In the year 1300 the First Jubilee was celebrated in a city on its way to renaissance, but later in the same century the lengthy Avignonese Captivity, the plague in 1341, the disastrous earthquake in 1349, as well as the failure of Cola di Rienzo, who had attempted to create a Signory on the city, brought Rome back to long years of misery.
The general situation improved with the returning of the papal court from Avignone, when temporal power was exercised in the form of a princedom. The Renaissance is said to have begun under Pope Martin V Colonna, whose reconstruction effort was continued by Niccolò V and Sisto IV (1471-1484). Pope Giulio II (1503-1513) wanted the building of the great St. Peter’s Basilica to be started, as well as the opening of the first straight road of the city, the Via Giulia.
The sacking of Rome in 1527 resulted in a temporary standstill, but the Popes were soon spurred to re-organise their possessions because of the Reformation, and even more than before they saw to the Capital city’s grandeur.
Pope Sisto V was the great innovator who – in five years’ time, between 1585 and 1590 - gave to the city the appearance that it still has nowadays. Sisto V is also known for the obelisks, that he wanted to be risen in the squares in front of St. Peter’s and of St. John Lateran, as well as in Piazza del Popolo and Piazza dell’Esquilino.
Pope Alessandro VII (1655-67) gave a baroque touch to the city as Sisto V had accomplished it. He wanted Gian Lorenzo Bernini to project and realize St. Peter’s Colonnade and the fountains in Piazza Navona. Thus, between the second half of the XVII century and the first half of the XVIII century, Rome reached its formal and scenographic acme.
The end of the XVIII century brought about a decrease in the building activity, due to the decadence of the pope’s political influence and to the economic difficulties that the Vatican was facing. With the French occupation and annexation, a number of major restoration works in the Neoclassical style were planned to prepare Rome for its role as the second Capital city of Napoleon Empire, although the French project could be realized only partially, between 1809 and 1814.
After Pope Pius VII was restored (1815) Rome saw its cultural and artistic importance decrease, but since 1870, when it was chosen as the Capital city of Italy, a rapid population increase started, resulting in a doubling of the former 200,000 inhabitants in the year 1900.
Before World War II broke out, a number of archaeology excavations were carried out in the centre of the city, most of which were often of questionable importance.
The population had increased up to half a million inhabitants in the 30s, and reached 1 million and a half people after the war. Since then, it has almost doubled, this growth trend resulting in a wild buildings construction activity, which was not spared by speculation.
In 1990 a law was issued, that financed the realization of urgent urbanistic restoration works. The Jubilee of the year 2000 made it possible to undertake a massive restoration of the city, whose churches and museums have also been restored.

Important events

Every day can be a special occasion to be celebrated in Rome, given the many religious and national feast-days and the traditional celebrations in the different quarters of the city. Among the religious events it is worth to mention the blessing Urbi et Orbi in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Day, St. John Baptist Nativity (23 June) in St. John Lateran, St. Peter and St. Paul’s day (29 June, bank holiday) celebrated in St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, and St. Mary Major, the so-called ‘Festa de’ Noantri’ in the quarter of Trastevere (16 June), the Feast of the Immaculate Conception ( 8 December) at the Spanish Step, Christmas in St. Peter’s, the Epiphany (6 January) in Piazza Navona.
Among the secular events that are celebrated in Rome it is worth to mention Rome’s Natal Day (21 April), the Azaleas exhibition at the Spanish Step (April), the International Horseshow at Piazza di Siena (end of April), the International Tennis Championship at the Foro Italico (beginning of May), the Antique Exhibition in Via dei Coronari (beginning of May), the Roses Exhibition at the city’s Rose Garden (April-June), the Handicraft Exhibition (September) in Via dell’Orso. Along the city’s riverbanks of the Tiber, Tevere Expo is held in June and July.