Monte Aventino

The Piazza della Repubblica impressed me for what is not there any more. It was formerly known as the Piazza dell'Esedra because it was laid down on the remains of an exedra (a semi-circular open room with seating) from the Diocletian era.
Commissioned by the Emperor Diocletian in 298 AD, the baths were completed in 306 with a capacity of over 3,000 people. The whole complex took up 120,000 square meters and included a gymnasium, a library, and cold, hot and tepid public baths. Big.
The Roman public baths remained open until 537, when the Goths cut off the aqueducts in an attempt to conquer Rome, whereupon they were taken over by bandits and courtesans until the Renaissance, when the grounds were bought by the French cardinal Jean du Bellay, who commissioned the construction of a beautiful villa and its gardens.
So this large piazza occupies the space of the waiting room for the baths! On one side are the ruins of the baths, and the entrance to a church. On the other is a copy of the Royal Crescent in Bath, with the inevitable view of the Wedding cake in the distance.
In the centre stands the majestic Fontana delle Naiadi, constructed between 1870 and 1888 and decorated with four lion sculptures. In 1901 the lions were replaced by the statues of four nude Naiads (water nymphs). Such blatant nudity shocked the citizens - for a while anyway.Read more