Santa Maria del Popolo

We had breakfast of buns and cheese and fruit and took the bus to the east of the Vatican to start our visit to this area. Walked through the People's Square which has an obelisk topped with a cross. How they transported these large stone structures from Egypt to Rome in Roman times is a wonder, then they were eventually topped with crosses by the Christians.

Piazza del Popolo ( People's Square) is a large ellipse-shaped square surrounded by beautiful buildings, and home to monuments, fountains and grand memorials. The square leads on to one of the ancient gates in the Aurelian Walls, Porta del Popolo which was once called Flaminia as the gate leads through to Via Flaminia which was built in 220BC to connect Rome with the Adriatic Sea. Their first step into the city would have been onto Piazza del Popolo. In 1562 the gate was built to welcome and impress the arriving travelers and later Bernini was employed to decorate the gate. The most prominent feature of the square is a 23.2 meter high obelisk placed here is 1589. The obelisk dates back to 1300BC and was originally from Heliopolis, Egypt. The square has the Neptune Fountain at the western end and the Fountain of the Goddess of Rome at the eastern end. At the southern end stand the symmetrical churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli separated by Via del Corso.

The Santa Maria del Popolo is a church built in 1477 and standing next to the Porta del Popolo. This church was constructed in 1099 to scare off the ghost of Emperor Nero (who was buried nearby) as locals were complaining that the evil old emperor was haunting them! So a chapel was erected on this site, later in the 1400's the original Romanesque chapel was expanded by Pontelli; in 1505 Bramante expanded the church further and in 1513 the now legendary artists began working on the interior décor.
The church is a treasure trove of renaissance and baroque art by many of the great Italian masters like Bernini, Raphael, Pinturicchio and Carracci. In the apse are Rome's first stained glass windows and two tombs carved by Sansovino. The Chigi Chapel is one of the highlights of the church and was designed and painted by Raphael. Sebastiano del Piombo was responsible for the altar piece, the Nativity of the Virgin, and Lorenzetto sculpted the bronze altar front and carved the statues of Jonah and Elijah. Bernini created niche statues of Habakuk and the angel and Daniel for the Chigi Chapel as well as the pietra dura skeleton which you can see set in the floor. Bernini also had a hand in the baroque parts of the building's façade. Two of the baroque masters, Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio painted the Assumption of the Virgin and the Crucifixion of St. Peter respectively.

Article on Piazza:
http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/piazzadelpopo…

Article on church:
https://romanchurches.fandom.com/wiki/Santa_Mar…Read more