Quirinal Hill
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An etching of the Hill, crowned by the mass of the Palazzo del Quirinale, from a series I Sette Colli di Roma antica e moderna published in 1827 by Luigi Rossini (1790 - 1857): his view, from the roof of the palazzo near the Trevi Fountain that now houes the Accademia di San Luca, substituted an imaginary foreground garden for the repetitious roofscape. |
The Quirinal Hill' (Latin,
Collis Quirinalis) is one of the
Seven Hills of Rome, at the north-east of the historical city center. Today it is the location of the official residence of the Italian Head of State, who resides in the
Quirinal Palace; by
metonymy "the Quirinal" has come to stand for the state bureaucracy of modern Italy.
Originally it was part of a group of hills that included
Collis Latiaris,
Mucialis (or
Sanqualis),
Salutaris. These are now lost due to buildings built in the 16th century and following.
According to Roman legend, The Quirinal Hill was the site of a small
village of the
Sabines, and king
Titus Tatius would have lived there after the peace between Romans and Sabines. These Sabines had erected
altars in the honour of their
god Quirinus (naming the hill by this god).
Tombs have been discovered from the 8th century B.C. to the 7th century B.C. that could confirm a likely presence of a Sabine settlement area; on the hill there was the tomb of Quirinus, that
Lucius Papirius Cursor transfomed into a temple for his
triumph after the third
Samnite war. Some authors consider it possible that the cult of the
Capitoline Triad (
Jove,
Minerva,
Juno) could have been celebrated here well before it became associated with the
Capitoline Hill. The sanctuary of
Flora, an
Osco-sabine
goddess, was here too.
In
446 BC, a
temple was dedicated on the Quirinal in the honour of
Semo Sancus Dius Fidius, and it is possible that this temple was erected over the ruins of another temple.
Augustus, too, ordered the building of a temple, dedicated to
Mars. On a slope of the Quirinal were the extensive
gardens of Sallust.
On the Quirinal Hill is where
Constantine ordered the erection of the last
thermae of
imperial Rome, though now lost, having been incorporated into Renaissance Rome, with only some drawings from the 16th century remaining.
In the
Middle Ages the
Torre delle Milizie and the
convent of St. Peter and Domenic were built, and above Constantine's building was erected the Palazzo Rospigliosi; the two famous colossal marble statues of the "
Horse Tamers", generally identified as the
Dioscuri with horses, which now are in the Piazza Quirinale, were originally in this Palazzo. They gave to the Quirinal its medieval name
Monte Cavallo which lingered into the nineteenth century, when the Quirinale was transformed beyond all recognition by urbanization of an expanding capital of a united Italy. In the same palazzo were also the two statues of river gods that
Michelangelo moved to the steps of Palazzo Senatorio on the
Capitoline Hill.
According to the current political division of the center of
Rome, the Hill belongs to the
rione Trevi.
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A mid-18th century etching of the Palazzo del Quirinale by Giovanni Battista Piranesi: the colossal Roman "Horse Tamers" or Dioscuri are in the foreground, but the obelisk from the Mausoleum of Augustus (erected 1781 - 1786) has not yet been set up between them. |
The Quirinal Hill is today identified with the
Palazzo del Quirinale, the official residence of the
President of the Italian Republic and one of the symbols of the State. Before the abolition of the Italian monarchy in 1946, it was the residence of the king of Italy, and before 1871 it was, as originally, the residence of the Pope.
The healthy cool air of the Quirinal attracted aristocrats and papal families that built villas where the
gardens of Sallust had been in Antiquity. A visit to the villa of Cardinal
Luigi d'Este in 1573 convinced
Pope Gregory XIII to start the building of a summer residence the following year, in an area considered healthier than the
Vatican Hill or
Lateran: his architects were
Flaminio Ponzio and
Ottaviano Nonni, called Mascherino; under
Pope Sixtus V works were continued by
Domenico Fontana (the main facade on the Piazza) and
Carlo Maderno, and by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini for
Pope Clement XII. Gardens were conceived by Maderno. In the 18th century,
Ferdinando Fuga built the long wing called the
Manica Lunga, which stretched 360 meters along via del Quirinale. In front lies the sloping
Piazza del Quirinale where the pair of gigantic Roman marble "Horse Tamers" representing Castor and Pollux, found in the Baths of Constantine, were re-erected in
1588. In Piranesi's view the vast open space is unpaved. The
Palazzo del Quirinale was the residence of the popes until
1870, though Napoleon deported both
Pius VI and
Pius VII to France, and declared the Quirinale an imperial palace. When Rome was united to the
Kingdom of Italy, the Quirinale became the residence of the kings until
1946.
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The entrance to the Palazzo Quirinale today. |
Today the Palazzo hosts the offices and the apartments of the Head of State, and in its long side along
via XX Settembre (the so-called
Manica Lunga), the apartments that were appositely arranged, decorated and furnished for each visit of foreign monarchs or equivalent authorities.
Several collections are in this Palazzo, among which
tapestries,
paintings,
statues, old
carriages (
carrozze), watches, furniture,
porcelains.
In Piranesi's view, the palazzo on the right hand is the
Palazzo della Sacra Consulta, originally a villa built upon the ruins of the Baths of Constantine which was adapted by Sixtus V as a civil and criminal court. The present façade was built in 1732–1734 by the architect Ferdinando Fuga on the orders of
Pope Clement XII Corsini, whose coat-of-arms, trumpeted by two
Fames, still surmounts the roofline balustrade, as in Piranesi's view. Formerly it housed Mussolini's ministry of colonial affairs.
The hill hosts several other important monuments:
*The church of
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale was designed by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (
1658-
1671), for Cardinal
Camillo Pamphilij (nephew of
Pope Innocent X), and is one of the most elegant samples of
baroque architecture in Rome, with its well known oval plan and its splendid interiors of marbles, stuccoes, gilt decorations).
*The four fountains (
Quattro Fontane) and
Borromini's church of
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (or San Carlino - originally
Chiesa della Santissima Trinità e di San Carlo Borromeo), the first work of this architect as well as the last one: the
façade was completed after his death.
*Palazzo Volpi di Misurata, across from San Carlino.
*
Palazzo del Drago.
*
Palazzo Baracchini (now the Ministry of Defense).
*The church of
San Silvestro al Quirinale, which was described for the first time circa
1000, rebuilt in the 16th century and restructured (façade) in the 19th.
*Villa Colonna (17th century), in front of
Palazzo Rospigliosi, contains some remains of
Caracalla's temple of
Serapis*Palazzo della Consulta hosts today the Constitutional Court, supreme Italian magistrature, and was erected by
Ferdinando Fuga for
Pope Clement XII directly opposite Palazzo del Quirinale.
*
Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome: Quirinal Hill
*
Rossini's etching*
"Palazzo del Quirinale" official site.
