Each city - capital or provincial - has grand streets and squares, where tourists, loaded with guides and carefully guided by guides, go first. Rome is no exception in this regard. However, unlike other European cities, a tour of Rome can begin with almost any area.
If it seems to you that you got to the shooting of a classic film about Italian life, slowly flowing on narrow streets with garlands of flowers and freshly washed linen against the background of temples of amazing beauty, then you have come to Trastevere - the most romantic and picturesque area of the Eternal City!
Trastevere: welcome to Zatiber
In the literal translation into Russian, the name Trastevere district in Rome doesn’t sound particularly romantic - Zatibrye. A former suburb on the eastern slope of the Yanikul hill, formerly inhabited by the Etruscans, and later by sailors, soldiers, and foreigners who came from all over the Old World, entered the city limits in the 1st century. new era, under Octavian Augustus.
Relatively quiet compared to the busy city center, the area attracted the attention of the Roman patricians, and luxurious villas appeared on its territory. Two centuries later, the Trastevere area began to be protected by the powerful wall of Aurelian, significant sections of which have survived to this day.
Trastevere today is the same as it was several centuries ago
It was in Trastevere in the III century. one of the oldest Christian basilica in Rome was built - Santa Maria in Trastevere. In front of the church there was a square with the oldest surviving fountains. At the same time, in the Middle Ages, the area was a living illustration for the lecture "Rome - a city of contrasts." The multi-storey shacks on the narrow streets, which had dried out from old age, coexisted with numerous temples, estates of aristocrats and villas of bankers and courtesans.
Only in 1473, Pope Sixtus IV ordered the restoration of the Aurelius bridge, which collapsed at the end of the VI century., And that how to get to trastevere directly, you could no longer worry. Soon winding streets were paved, and new fountains appeared that provided the area with drinking water, including the famous Turtle Fountain in the square near the Mattei Palace. In the XIX century. the bridges of Garibaldi and Palatino appeared.
Modern Trastevere district this is why it is interesting that, despite the numerous reconstruction attempts undertaken in the 17th-19th centuries, the general view of the region remains almost the same, as it was several centuries ago.
Residents of the district are also special, endowed with the gift not to lose heart over trifles. And what else remains when life, flowing among a cluster of shacks, albeit saturated with history, and so not too fun?
Turtle Fountain was created in the 1580s
In the film Trastevere, shot back in 1971, one of the characters describes the inhabitants of this area as follows: "the ancient people, who know everything and understand everything, who survived and forgave everything and everything." “Our life is only a quarter tragic, everything else is comedy” - this statement belongs to the greatest Italian comedian Alberto Sordi, who was born on St. Cosimato Street in Trastevere. “Life is beautiful, death is disgusting,” is the epitaph on the grave monument of singer Claudio Villa, a native of Zatibrya and a 4-time winner of the San Remo festival.
Trastevere District: Monuments and Legends
There are a lot of architectural monuments on the territory of Trastevere, a lot of legends connected with them. The temples of Santa Maria in Trastevere of the 3rd century, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere and San Crizogono of the 5th century, San Pietro in Montorio and San Andrea of the 9th century, San Cosimato X century, partly, of course, reconstructed and rebuilt, but retaining a number of material evidence of the ancient layout. It could not be otherwise, because the history of the early Christian world is actually the history of Rome.
So, the gallery walls at the entrance to the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, rebuilt in the early Gothic style at the beginning of the 12th century, are decorated with carefully preserved slabs of the early Christian basilica with ornaments and marble tablets, dotted with inscriptions in Latin.
According to legend, it was erected on the site of the former house of contempt, which at the end of I century. BC. scored an oil fountain, which was considered a jewel among the Romans. The first Christians considered this place miraculous, and the fountain - a symbolic indication of the Coming of the Savior.
Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere
In the church itself, in addition to the amazing mosaics of Pietro Cavallini at the end of the 13th century, you can see the icon of the Mother of God of the 6th-8th centuries, the episcopal throne of the 12th century, and the tombs of the 12th-18th centuries. The relics of the holy popes Kallista I (III c.) And Julius I (IV c.) Are in the temple. The baroque colonnade of the arched nave of the church consists of 22 columns from the Roman Forum and from the term Caracalla.
Near the church are the Corsini Gallery, which exhibited works by Caravaggio, Rubens, van Dyck and Canaletto, and the National Academy of Linchei, founded in the early VII century.
The Temple of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere was erected in the 5th century. directly on the site of the house of St. Cecilia of Rome, who suffered martyrdom in the III century. In the XVI century. the imperishable relics of the saint were transferred from the catacombs and placed under the church throne of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, decorated with frescoes of Cavallini.
The Temple of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere was erected in Rome in the 5th century.
The former monastery of San Pietro in Montorio on the Yanikul hill, built, according to legend, exactly where the Apostle Peter was crucified. At the beginning of the XVI century. the complex was completely renovated by order of Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain.
This reconstruction was the first known work of the great Bramante, who designed the round chapel of the monastery on the model of ancient Roman temples. Now in San Pietro in Montorio is located the Royal Spanish Academy, which stores the masterpieces of Sebastiano del Piombo, Masaccio, Peruzzi, Vasari, Rafael.
The legend of Trastevere is also associated with the name of Raphael - the legend of the meeting of the artist with Margherita Luti (Fornarina). Around 1508-10, he worked on interior painting of Villa Farnesina (then - Villa Agostino Chigi) and one fine day he saw a girl combing her hair in the window of one of the neighboring houses.
It is believed that Fornarina became the prototype of the "Sistine Madonna", "Donna Velata" and many other works of Raphael, created by him until his death in 1520. Local guides still proudly show tourists "the same window", and Villa Farnesina is still decorated with the priceless fresco "Triumph of Galatea", the characters of which, according to a number of art historians, have a certain resemblance to a beautiful baker.
Villa Farnesina is decorated with a fresco of Raphael - "Triumph of Galatea"
Trastevere in Rome: how to get there
Even if you are not interested in the masterpieces of architecture, sculpture and painting, which the Trastevere district is rich in, only Porta Porteze - the largest flea market in Rome - is worth a visit.
The market is open every Sunday, extending from the gates of Porte Porteze (after which it is named) at the crossroads of Via Trastevere and Nieuve through the entire area to the Trastevere railway station. This station can be reached from Termini Station by local train or H bus.
Porta Porteze - Rome's largest flea market
You can walk to Trastevere by the Bridges Fabrichio and Cestio across the island of Tiberina or by the Sisto (Sixta) bridge from the Palazzo Farnese in the region of Regola to Piazza Trilussa in the area of Trastevere. The Garibaldi and Palatino bridges are more suitable for motorists already familiar with the area.
Finally, you can get to Trastevere as part of an organized excursion. There are too many interesting places in the area for Roman guides to ignore.
If the question of how to get to Trastevere is resolved, you need to take care of how to get out of Trastevere. In the labyrinth of its streets it is not difficult to get lost. You can only navigate yourself by squares and temples, but there are at least 4 dozens of churches in the area now, and the squares are more like ordinary intersections. The main thing is to try to reach one of the bridges.
And here you’ll have a very handy BlogoItaliano Rome Guide mobile app. In addition to the many interesting objects of the Eternal City, it also has an online map showing your GPS position. Mobile traffic is not consumed. You can learn more about our mobile application and download it to your smartphone on this page.
Whatever variant of visit to Trastevere you choose, there is no need to hurry to see everything quickly, in Trastevere no one is in a hurry. Even the turtles on the fountain of Mattei Square symbolize, according to old-timers, the local motto - "hurry up slowly."
However, the inhabitants of this area only consider themselves true Romans, with a slight perplexity regarding the bustle around ancient monuments on the opposite bank of the river. And since the place in history for these "direct descendants" has already been secured, they probably really have nowhere to hurry.
What else to see in Rome
- Excursions in Rome in Russian: 5 most popular
- Borghese Gallery: Rome's most coveted and inaccessible museum
- Colosseum in Rome: the largest amphitheater of the Ancient World
- Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
- Roman Forum: the ancient heart of the Eternal City
Photos by: Pino D'Amico, The Ellis School, Daniele Muscetta, Jean-François Gornet, Jim Forest, Michiel Jelijs, Graeme Churchard.
