DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0515
CHAPTER XVIII.
I Prati di Castello. Via Ripetta.
Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Miraculous Madonnas.
359.—prata quinctia.
Crossing the river by Ponte Sant’ Angelo, or by the new
Ponte Umberto, and following the street on the left side of the
new Law Courts {Palazzo di Guistizia1'} we reach a part of the
city known as Prati di Castello (“ Castle meadows”). This was
an attractive spot in the time of the Popes, being covered with
fields, meadows, and vineyards, which were a favourite pleasure
resort on holidays. Since the Piedmontese occupation of
Rome it has been robbed of all its beauty, and cut up into blocks
of ignoble streets, or covered with huge stucco barracks of the
worst possible taste. Of late years something has been done
to improve matters by erecting detached villas, few of which
have any architectural or artistic merit.
The Prati di Castello are classic ground, for here were the
famous Prata Quinctia or Farm of Quinctius Cincinnatus.2
Unfortunately the picturesqueness of the spot has been all
improved away, and we see no longer the bright fields and
vineyards that formed such a pleasing foreground to the
Vatican and St. Peter’s.
1 A huge pile much criticized by architects as ponderous, fantastic,
faulty in style, and wanting in simplicity.
2 This illustrious Roman had renounced all ambitious prospects
and retired to his little farm. In a crisis of the Republic he was
informed, as he was in the act of ploughing his field, that the Senate
had chosen him Dictator. Upon this, he left his farm and repaired
to the field of battle, where he defeated the Volsci and ^Fqui and.
returned to Rome in triumph. Sixteen days after his appointment, he
laid down his office and returned to his agricultural pursuits. He died,
about 460 B.c. .
I Prati di Castello. Via Ripetta.
Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Miraculous Madonnas.
359.—prata quinctia.
Crossing the river by Ponte Sant’ Angelo, or by the new
Ponte Umberto, and following the street on the left side of the
new Law Courts {Palazzo di Guistizia1'} we reach a part of the
city known as Prati di Castello (“ Castle meadows”). This was
an attractive spot in the time of the Popes, being covered with
fields, meadows, and vineyards, which were a favourite pleasure
resort on holidays. Since the Piedmontese occupation of
Rome it has been robbed of all its beauty, and cut up into blocks
of ignoble streets, or covered with huge stucco barracks of the
worst possible taste. Of late years something has been done
to improve matters by erecting detached villas, few of which
have any architectural or artistic merit.
The Prati di Castello are classic ground, for here were the
famous Prata Quinctia or Farm of Quinctius Cincinnatus.2
Unfortunately the picturesqueness of the spot has been all
improved away, and we see no longer the bright fields and
vineyards that formed such a pleasing foreground to the
Vatican and St. Peter’s.
1 A huge pile much criticized by architects as ponderous, fantastic,
faulty in style, and wanting in simplicity.
2 This illustrious Roman had renounced all ambitious prospects
and retired to his little farm. In a crisis of the Republic he was
informed, as he was in the act of ploughing his field, that the Senate
had chosen him Dictator. Upon this, he left his farm and repaired
to the field of battle, where he defeated the Volsci and ^Fqui and.
returned to Rome in triumph. Sixteen days after his appointment, he
laid down his office and returned to his agricultural pursuits. He died,
about 460 B.c. .