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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore.
Page revised in April 2009.
To the Italian visitors of my web site

S. Eustachio (Book 6) (Day 4) (View C6) (Rione Sant'Eustachio)

In this page:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
S. Eustachio
Universita' della Sapienza
Palazzo Cenci Maccarani
Palazzo Medici Lante
Coat of arms of Pius IV (Palazzo Tizio di Spoleto)

The Plate (No. 113)

The Church of S. Eustachio

The plate is dedicated to the church of S. Eustachio, but Vasi takes the opportunity to show the spiral of S. Ivo, the chapel of the old University della Sapienza (sapienza=wisdom). The view is taken from the green dot in the small 1748 map here below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Palazzo Cenci; 2) Collegio della Sapienza; 3) Dome of S. Ivo alla Sapienza (the church was also dedicated to S. Luca); 4) Piazza S. Eustachio. 2) and 3) are also shown in other pages. The small map shows also: 5) Palazzo Tizio di Spoleto; 6) S. Eustachio; 7) Palazzo Medici Lante.

Small ViewSmall Map

Today

The View today
Today's view

The area is untouched since Vasi's time. As usual Vasi enlarged the street and rearranged the perspective in order to show the façade and the bell tower of S. Eustachio.

 The Church

The Church
S. Eustachio: (left) overall view; (centre) stags on the roof (above) and on the capitals (below); (right) bell tower

The church gives the name to the quarter (rione). The stag is a reference to an event associated with the conversion of the saint (see below); the account is now regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as a legend. The bell tower (which was recently restored) goes back to the XIIth century while the church was almost totally rebuilt between 1701 and 1730 mainly on the basis of a project by Giovan Battista Contini (the head of the stag was criticized for looking like a donkey's head).

The University

The University
La Sapienza: (left) detail of the rear façade; (centre/right) dome of S. Ivo

The University of La Sapienza was founded in the XVth century and the front was completed by Giacomo Della Porta for Pope Sixtus V. Francesco Borromini decorated the side shown on this plate and built the church during the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII and his successors. The design of the lantern was meant to represent the path to achieve supreme wisdom; the flaming crown is a symbol of divine charity.

The University
La Sapienza: detail of the rear portal with reliefs making reference to Law/Justice (left) and Medicine/Prudence (right).

Palazzo Cenci Maccarani

Palazzo Cenci
Palazzo Cenci Maccarani: portal

This palace has four names: Stati, Cenci, Maccarani, di Brazzà. Cristoforo Stati commissioned the building to Giulio Romano, an architect and painter who started his career as an assistant to Raphael. The design of the palace is characterized by the use of jack arches (It. piattabanda). A jack arch is an "arch" which is flat in profile, but has the advantage of discharging strength as a regular arch through the use of wedge shaped stones.
In 1561 the palace was bought by the Cenci who passed it to the Maccarani, a branch of the family, at the end of the XVIIIth century. It was eventually bought by the Savorgnan di Brazzà. It is close to Palazzo Madama, and it is now used by the Senate of the Republic as an ancillary location.

Palazzo Medici Lante

Palazzo Lante
Palazzo Medici Lante: (left to right) overall view; heraldic symbol (oak) of the Lante Della Rovere; heraldic symbols (lion/three ostrich feathers) of Pope Leo X Medici; entrance with the inscription "Ludovicus Lantes"

Next to Palazzo Cenci, Palazzo Lante (which once belonged to Pope Leo X Medici) is attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo. A Lante married the last heir of the Della Rovere, the family of Pope Julius II (1503-13). He was allowed to add to his surname that of his wife and to make use of her coat of arms.

The Coat of arms of Pius IV

The coat of arms of Pius IV
Palazzo di Tizio di Spoleto: (left) façade in Piazza di S. Eustachio; (centre) S. Eustachio seeing the stag; (right) coat of arms of Pope Pius IV

The plate shows on the left an elegant small building, decorated with frescoes by Federico Zuccari. The façade on the piazza shows the coat of arms of Pope Pius IV and between the windows of the top floor the miracle of S. Eustachio; he was a Roman soldier who was hunting a stag, but refrained from killing it when he saw a cross on its head. Renaissance palaces were very often painted (see also Palazzo Ricci and Palazzo della Maschera d'Oro).

The coat of arms of Pius IV
Palazzo di Tizio da Spoleto: details of a window (left) and of the cornice (right)

Tizio di Spoleto was house-steward of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and this explains the presence of fleur-de-lis (the Farnese heraldic symbol) in the very elaborate decoration of the building.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:


Chiesa di s. Eustachio
Questa si crede edificata in tempo di Costantino Magno nel luogo del martirio di questo santo Cavaliere Romano. Fu dipoi ristaurata l'anno 1196. da Celestino III. il quale pose sotto l'altare maggiore i corpi di s. Eustachio, di sua moglie, e de' suoi figliuoli tutti martiri, ed essendo ultimamente la chiesa riedificata di nuovo, dal Cardinale Neri Corsini Diacono della medesima, sono stati collocati entro una preziosa urna di porfido ornata di metalli dorati, posta sotto il nobilissimo altare di mezzo fatto dal medesimo. Il santo Titolare nell'altare maggiore è opera del Muratori, il s. Girolamo, e la Visitazione negli altari laterali sono di Giacomo Zoboli. È notabile, che in questa chiesa fu battezzato l'an. 15*7. il grande Alessandro Farnese gran Capitano delle Fiandre.
La piazza, che si apre dinanzi alla detta chiesa, sebbene non sia molto grande, ella è sempre piena di ogni sorta di viveri, e così seguita ad unirsi con quella della Rotonda.
Palazzo Lanti, e Cenci
Il palazzo Cenci, che si vede su questa piazza è nobile architettura di Giulio Romano, e quello, che gli sta accanto è il palazzo Lanti molto grande e cospicuo, ora notabilmente rimodernato, ed ornato nel cortile con statue e busti antichi.

Next plate in Book 6: S. Lucia alle Botteghe oscure
Next step in Day 4 itinerary: S. Maria in Monterone
Next step in your tour of Rione Sant'Eustachio: Piazza de' Crescenzi