AT CASTEL SANT’ANGELO, AN EXHIBITION OF A ROME THAT IS NO LONGER HERE
Not only nightlife along the Tiber!
The Teverestate event at Castel Sant’Angelo that runs until September the 2nd hosts an evocative photographic exhibition. 20 panels tells the story of the so-called “Spina di Borgo”, the area between Castel Sant’Angelo and Saint Peter’s Square, destroyed for the construction of Via della Conciliazione.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Giuseppe Valadier was invited by the French administration to develop a project that included the demolition of the Spina and realization of a long route till the port of Ripetta. The controversial proposals were included in the various city plans. With the signature of the Lateran Pacts on the 11th of February 1929, the problem was solved by realizing a monumental road axis that connected Castel Sant’Angelo to the Basilica of San Pietro, the official reconciliation between Italy and the Holy State.
The architects Marcello Piacentini e Attilio Spaccarelli were commissioned for the works that began in October 1936. Benito Mussolini himself gave the first stroke of axe on the roof of a house. Only a year later in 1937 the view from the two roman landmarks was open. However the exhibition is not limited to the chronicle of demolition activities. In between the photos that allow us to reconstruct the important phases and moments there are also proper witnesses of “romanity”.
