Home

Visit Rome following 8 XVIIIth century itineraries XVIIIth century Rome in the 10 Books of Giuseppe Vasi - Le Magnificenze di Roma Antica e Moderna The Grand View of Rome by G. Vasi The Environs of Rome: Frascati, Tivoli, Albano and other small towns near Rome A 1781 map of Rome by G. Vasi An 1852 map of Rome by P. Letarouilly Rome seen by a 1905 armchair traveller in the paintings by Alberto Pisa The 14 historical districts of Rome An abridged history of Rome How to spend a peaceful day in Rome Baroque sculptors and their works The coats of arms of the popes in the monuments of Rome Pages on a specific pope Pages complementing the itineraries and the views by Giuseppe Vasi Walks in the Roman countryside and in other towns of Latium following Ferdinand Gregorovius A Directory of links to the Churches of Rome A Directory of links to the Palaces and Villas of Rome A Directory of links to the Other Monuments of Rome A Directory of Baroque Architects with links to their works A Directory of links to Monuments of Ancient Rome A Directory of links to Monuments of Medieval Rome A Directory of links to Monuments of Renaissance A Directory of links to Monuments of the Late Renaissance A list of the most noteworthy Roman Families Directories of fountains, obelisks, museums, etc. Books and guides used for developing this web site An illustrated Glossary of Art Terms Venice and the Levant Roman recollections in Florence A list of Italian towns shown in this web site Venetian Fortresses in Greece Vienna seen by an Italian XVIIIth century traveller A list of foreign towns shown in this web site
What's New!

Detailed Sitemap

All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore.
Page revised in March 2011.

To the Italian visitors of my web site

A walk to Porta Furba A Walk to Porta Furba
(arches of Aqua Claudia)

In this page:
 Via Appia Pignatelli
 Tempio della Salute
 Villa dei Sette Bassi
 Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus
 Acqua Felice
 Tor Fiscale (Campo Barbarico)
 Monte del Grano
 Porta Furba

It. porta means door, gate so one may believe Porta Furba to be one of the openings in the Walls of Rome. It is a gate in the sense that it has the appearance of a gate, but the walls of Rome are miles away.

Via Appia Pignatelli

Appia Pignatelli
(left) 1909 map of the sites covered in this page (black numbers): 1) Junction between Via Appia Pignatelli and Via Appia Nuova; 2) Tempio della Salute; 3) Villa dei Sette Bassi; 4) Aqua Claudia; 5) Acqua Felice; 6) Tor Fiscale; 7) Monte del Grano; 8) Porta Furba. The blue numbers indicate ancient monuments covered in other pages: 1) S. Urbano; 2) Cecilia Metella; 3) Villa dei Quintili; (right) coat of arms of Pope Innocent XII (Antonio Pignatelli)

This walk starts at the junction between Via Appia Pignatelli and Via Appia Nuova where a coat of arms celebrates the improvements made by Pope Innocent XII to an existing path which linked Via Appia Nuova to ancient Via Appia and to Porta S. Sebastiano; from the inscription "Ab inundantibus imbribus in securitatem" we learn that the path was subject to being flooded; the improvements were made for the Jubilee Year 1700.

Tempio della Salute

Tempio della Salute
(left) Etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi; (right) Tempio della Salute; (inset) brick capital

Tempio della Salute is the name given by Giovanni Battista Piranesi to a IInd century AD Roman tomb along Via Appia Nuova approximately one mile from its junction with Via Appia Pignatelli. The comparison between the etching by Piranesi and the actual monument shows how Piranesi dramatized the view by exaggerating the size of the ancient building and by adding some picturesque elements such as the shadow of a pyramid. The tomb is similar to other brick tombs along nearby Via Appia Antica.

Villa dei Sette Bassi

Villa dei Sette Bassi
(above) View of the three main buildings; (below) ruins of the "carceres" which marked the starting line of the private circus

Roma Vecchia (Old Rome) was the name given to a series of imposing ruins spread between Via Appia Antica and Via Tuscolana (the latter runs almost parallel, 2 miles north of the former). They were thought to be the remaining evidence of a town which existed before Rome. Archaeological research has attributed these ruins to large villas built in the IInd century AD; Villa dei Quintili is located near Via Appia Antica, while Villa dei Sette Bassi borders on Via Tuscolana.
Sette Bassi is a corruption of Septimius Bassus, an owner of the villa at the time of Emperor Constantine. The wealth of the landlords is testified to by the presence of a private circus for chariot races; the carceres (cages) from which the chariots started the race were placed on a staggered line to take into account the impact of the circus curve.

Villa dei Sette Bassi
(above) View of the private aqueduct; (below) an isolated building which is thought to have been a guesthouse

The villa was supplied with water by a short aqueduct which branched off Aqua Claudia, the imposing aqueduct which carried water to the imperial palaces on the Palatine hill; this leads to the belief that the initial owners of the villa were relatives or close friends of Emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, as the construction of the villa has been dated to their reigns.

Villa dei Sette Bassi
Ruins of building "A"

The main buildings are located near Via Tuscolana; the first one had a square shape with rooms around an internal courtyard with porticoes; the other two were added a short time later and they included reception halls and baths.

Aqua Claudia

Aqueduct of Claudius
Views of Aqua Claudia: towards Tor Fiscale (above) and towards Villa dei Sette Bassi (below)

The ruins of the aqueducts were a common feature of all Grand Tour paintings showing the Roman countryside; in particular the ruins of Aqua Claudia, the aqueduct initiated by Emperor Caligula and completed by Emperor Claudius were depicted in the background of J. W. Goethe's portrait by W. Tischbein.

Towards Rome
(left) Arches at Parco degli Acquedotti; (right) image showing the two water conduits

The arches carried the water of Aqua Claudia (lower conduit) and Anio Novus (upper conduit) from springs near Subiaco in the Apennine Mountains. The two aqueducts joined together some seven miles east of Rome; the completion of the aqueducts was celebrated with a triumphal arch, which eventually was turned into Porta Maggiore, one of the gates of Rome.
Ancient engineers did not neglect the artistic aspect of the aqueducts; they employed different kinds of stones to obtain colour effects (which have been taken into account in the design of a modern church near the aqueduct).

The walls
Arches near Tor Fiscale

For the construction of very long aqueducts (45 miles in the case of Aqua Claudia), the Romans developed a series of instruments which anticipated those utilized by modern topographers; because the movement of water was due to gravity, it was necessary to ensure conduits had an appropriate and constant gradient throughout the whole length of the aqueduct: the gradients of Roman aqueducts ranged between 2 and 4:10,000; measurement equipment had to be very precise and foundations and arches very solid to achieve this level of tolerance.

Acqua Felice

Acqueduct of Sixtus V
Acqua Felice at Parco degli Acquedotti

Similar to an ancient Roman Emperor, Pope Sixtus V (Felice Peretti) gave his name to a new aqueduct he built immediately after his election in 1585; Acqua Felice (It.) and Aqua Claudia (Lat.) run parallel towards Rome for many miles, but the low arches of the modern aqueduct are not as evocative as those of the ancient one.

Acqueduct of Sixtus V
(above) Acqua Felice at Parco degli Acquedotti; (below) Aqua Claudia - Ist century (left) and Acqua Felice - XVIth century (right) near Tor Fiscale

Acqua Felice, by bringing water to the northern hills of Rome (Esquilino, Viminale, Quirinale), helped their development and increased the value of Villa Peretti, the pope's large estate between S. Maria Maggiore and Piazza di Termini.

Tor Fiscale

Tor Fiscale
(left/centre) Tor Fiscale; (right) arch of Aqua Claudia upon which Tor Fiscale was built

Tor Fiscale is one of the highest medieval towers one can see in the Roman countryside; it was built above an arch of Aqua Claudia; the area where it stands was known as Campo Barbarico, because during the Greek-Gothic War, the Goths established their camp in this location and they fortified it by closing the arches of the aqueduct; the conduits were damaged in order to turn them into battlements. At the end of the war Rome was so impoverished and its population so reduced that Aqua Claudia was not repaired.

Monte del Grano

Monte del Grano
Monte del Grano (Hill of Wheat for its resemblance to a "modius", the Roman bushel)

Monte del Grano is an ancient large circular mausoleum which was deprived of its travertine decoration in the XIVth century; it is located on the northern side of Via Tuscolana; some archaeologists believe it was built for Emperor Alexander Severus, who, not far from this site, built an aqueduct. A corridor leads to a large underground hall where a sarcophagus (external link) with an assumed portrait of the emperor and of his mother was found in the XVIth century (now at Musei Capitolini).

Porta Furba


Porta Furba
(left) Porta Furba; (right) inscription and heraldic symbols of Pope Sixtus V

Pope Sixtus V celebrated the completion of Acqua Felice with a long inscription on the arch which crossed Via Tuscolana; the appellation of Furba, given to the arch/gate is obscure; the Italian adjective furbo means cunning and it does not seem very applicable to a gate; perhaps it was referred to cunning brigands, who robbed the passers-by at the gate.
Pope Sixtus V celebrated the completion of its aqueduct in a similar way near Porta Chiusa and with an imposing fountain near S. Susanna.

Details
Aqua Claudia and fountain built by Pope Clement XII

A fountain built by Pope Sixtus V at Porta Furba was restored by Pope Clement XII in 1734; on that occasion it was entirely redesigned perhaps by Luigi Vanvitelli (see a page showing other small fountains built by Pope Clement XII).