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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 May 2010.
To the Italian visitors of my web site

Ponte Nomentano (Book 5) (Environs of Rome)

In this page:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
Ponte Nomentano
Monte Sacro
Villa Chigi
Sedia del Diavolo (Devil's Chair)
Roman Tomb from Tor di Quinto

The Plate (No. 82)

Ponte Nomentano

Scampagnata is an Italian word meaning hike in the countryside (It. campagna). Nowadays the word has become out of date, but in the XVIIIth century many middle class families spent their Sundays taking a walk outside the walls of Rome; many went to Prati di Castello, but also the meadows near Ponte Nomentano attracted picnickers, as this etching by Giuseppe Vasi shows. Ponte Nomentano crosses the Aniene River, a tributary of the Tiber, and it could be reached in about one hour's walk from Porta Pia; food and wine could be bought at an inn near the bridge.
In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Tavern on the side towards Sabina; 2) Ruins of the Roman period; 3) Via Nomentana towards Rome; 4) Monte Sacro. The view is taken from the green dot in the small 1920 map here below which shows: 1) Ponte Nomentano; 2) Villa Chigi; 3) Monte Sacro; 4) Sedia del Diavolo; 5) Roman Tomb along Via Nomentana.

Small ViewSmall View

Today

The view today
The view in March 2010

The immediate surroundings of Ponte Nomentano have not been affected by the modern development of Rome along Via Nomentana; in 1924 the increased volume of traffic was redirected over a new bridge built at a short distance from Ponte Nomentano, which is currently reserved to pedestrians.
The comparison between a current image with the etching shows that the river bed has not been properly dredged and that therefore the low arch of the bridge could cause an obstruction to the flow of the Aniene; in December 2008 Ponte Nomentano actually caused a major flood (see some images of the Tiber taken during that period).

Ponte Nomentano

Ponte Nomentano
(left) Western side of the bridge; (right) southern side


The Roman bridge had three arches of which only the central one was not damaged during the Greek-Gothic War; in 552 the bridge was restored; some small arches were added to the central one which was fortified; the tower on the western towards Rome was built by Pope Nicholas V (whose coat of arms is shown in the image used as background for this page).
In the past Ponte Nomentano was the subject of many landscape paintings; you may wish to see the works by Camille Corot and his friend Jean-Achille Benouville (external links).

Monte Sacro

Monte Sacro means Holy Mountain; it is a small isolated hill which at the time of ancient Rome was chosen by the augurs for watching the flight of birds; based on these observations the augurs determined whether a proposed action had divine approval.
According to Livy in 494 BC, Roman plebeians congregated at Monte Sacro when they abandoned Rome in a sort of general strike. The patrician Menenius Agrippa convinced them to return to Rome and to work by telling them the following apologue (a sort of moral fable):
At a time when the members of the human body did not, as at present, all unite in one plan, but each member had its own scheme, and its own language; the other parts were provoked at seeing that the fruits of all their care, of all their toil and service, were applied to the use of the belly; and that the belly meanwhile remained at its ease, and did nothing but enjoy the pleasure provided for it: on this they conspired together, that the hand should not bring food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it if offered, nor the teeth chew it. While they wished, by these angry measures, to subdue the belly through hunger, the members themselves, and the whole body, were, together with it, reduced to the last stage of decay: from thence it appeared that the office of the belly itself was not confined to a slothful indolence; that it not only received nourishment, but supplied it to the others, conveying to every part of the body, that blood, on which depend our life and vigour, by distributing it equally through the veins, after having brought it to perfection by digestion of the food.
(Livy - Book I - translation by George Baker)

Monte Sacro
(left) Ancient mausoleum; (right) Monument to Simon Bolivar

The religion of the ancient Romans did not give much hope about life after death; maybe this is one of the reasons why the wealthiest Romans wanted their funerary monuments to be very noticeable and built them along the roads which linked Rome to the provinces; in this way at least their names and deeds would survive and be remembered by travellers.
A 1792 etching by Johann Christian Reinhart (external link) shows a mausoleum of the Imperial age near Ponte Nomentano; this mausoleum, unlike the ruins shown by Vasi, has not been affected by the urban development of the area.
Simon Bolivar is the national hero of many Latin American countries; at the age of 22, as part of his Italian Grand Tour, he visited Rome and on August 15, 1805 (Ferragosto) from the top of Monte Sacro he swore to free his country from the Spanish yoke; a monument was erected in 2005 to celebrate the event.

Villa Chigi

Villa Chigi
(left) Gate; (right) western side of the casino

The Chigi had a large villa at Ariccia, but in 1763 Cardinal Flavio Chigi bought a farm near Ponte Nomentano which was turned into a small villa by Tommaso Bianchi and Pietro Camporese; Cardinal Chigi personally supervised its decoration with paintings and furniture.

Villa Chigi
Eastern side of the casino

The gate and the entrances to the casino are still decorated with the Chigi heraldic symbols (six mountains and a star), but the furniture and most of the paintings have been sold by the heirs of Flavio Chigi. Today the casino is a private property, whereas a section of the garden belongs to the City of Rome (but the fountains and statues which decorated it are lost).

Sedia del Diavolo

Sedia del Diavolo
(left) Rear side; (right) front side

A large Roman mausoleum near Via Nomentana was named in the Middle Ages Sedia del Diavolo (Devil's Chair) as the collapse of its entrance gave it the shape of a gigantic chair. It was built for Aelius Callistus, a freedman of Emperor Hadrian (whose second name was Aelius). It is one of many brick tombs which were built in the IInd century AD; it had two storeys, a burial-chamber below and a room for ceremonies above. Sepolcro di Annia Regilla is a similar mausoleum which retains most of its original decoration.
Being located near Ponte Nomentano also this tomb attracted the attention of landscape painters; see an 1872 view by Enrico Coleman (external link) which shows the tomb before it was surrounded by very tall apartment blocks.

Roman Tomb

Roman Tomb from Tor di Quinto
(left) Reconstructed tomb in Via Nomentana; (right) detail showing its decoration

In the early XXth century excavations at Tor di Quinto, a marshy area north of Ponte Milvio, led to the discovery of a small circular tomb. At that time Via Nomentana was the site of several rich mansions and the tomb was relocated immediately outside one of these mansions; later on Via Nomentana was enlarged and the tomb ended up in a traffic island.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:


Ponte Lamentano
Tre altre miglia fuori di porta Pia č questo ponte, che dovrebbe dirsi Nomentano, dalla Cittā di questo nome, che non molto lungi era, celebre non tanto per gli avvenimenti profani, quanto per l'eroiche prodezze di molti ss. Martiri, i quali ne' primi secoli della Chiesa collo spargimento del loro sangue illustrarono la via, che dalla medesima Cittā dicevasi Nomentana, su cui furono le ville di Seneca, di Ovidio, di Quinzio, ed il famoso suburbano di Faonte liberto di Nerone, di cui ancora si vedono le rovine, come di molti tempj, e fabbrice cospicue.

Next plate in Book 5: Ponte Salaro
Next step in your tour of the Environs of Rome: Ponte Mammolo
You can follow Via Nomentana until its end and visit Mentana, Monterotondo and Palombara.