Republic of Siena Papal States Grand Duchy of Tuscany Kingdom of Naples Holy Roman Empire
64-614: Princes of the Holy Roman Empire Prince of Náchod Prince of Valle di Casale Prince of Maida Grandee of Spain Duke of Amalfi Duke of Laconia Duke of Girifalco Duke of Montemarciano Marquess of Gioiosa Marquess of Montesoro Marquess of Città Sant'Angelo Imperial Count Count Palatine Count of Celano and Gagliano Patricians of Siena Patrician of Orvieto The House of Piccolomini (pronounced [pikkoˈlɔːmini] )
128-778: A certain Iulius Piccolomini Amideis, a member of the Amidei family , who was also of Roman descent. Pope Pius II , his full name being Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, was named in relation to his Roman ancestry and refers to Aeneas Silvius , King of Alba Longa , from which the Amideis also claimed descent through the gens Julia . Many members of the house were distinguished ecclesiastics, generals and statesmen in Siena and elsewhere. Two of them became popes: Other distinguished members include: Princes of
192-476: A giant outdoor room, a plaza enclosed and protected but open to the sky and accessible through five symmetrical openings. Axiality and symmetry govern all parts of the Campidoglio. The aspect of the piazza that makes this most immediately apparent is the central statue, with the paving pattern directing the visitors' eyes to its base. Michelangelo also gave the medieval Palazzo del Senatore a central campanile,
256-482: A renovated façade, and a grand divided external staircase. He designed a new façade for the colonnaded Palazzo dei Conservatori and projected an identical structure, the Palazzo Nuovo, for the opposite side of the piazza. On the narrow side of the trapezoidal plan, he extended the central axis with a magnificent stair to link the hilltop with the city below. In the middle, and not to Michelangelo's liking, stood
320-784: A steep cliff overlooking the Roman Forum . This cliff was later named the Tarpeian Rock after the Vestal Virgin, and became a frequent execution site. The Sabines, who immigrated to Rome following the Rape of the Sabine Women , settled on the Capitoline. The Vulcanal (Shrine of Vulcan), an 8th-century BC sacred precinct, occupied much of the eastern lower slopes of the Capitoline, at the head of what would later become
384-400: A subtext of less-than-Christian import, but Benito Mussolini ordered the paving completed to Michelangelo's design in 1940. Michelangelo looked at the center to find a solution to the Capitoline disorder. The statue provided a center and a focus. The buildings defined the space, and it is this space, as much as the buildings, that is the impressive achievement of the Capitoline complex. It is
448-525: Is caput ) when foundation trenches were being dug for the Temple of Jupiter at Tarquin's order. Recent excavations on the Capitoline uncovered an early cemetery under the Temple of Jupiter. There are several important temples built on Capitoline hill: the temple of Juno Moneta, the temple of Virtus, and the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus
512-458: Is a reinvention of older ideas. The portico contains entablatures and a flat, coffered ceiling . The entablatures rest on columns set at the front of each bay, while matching half-columns stand against the back wall. Each pilaster forms a compound unit with the pier and column on either side of it. Colossal pilasters set on large bases join the portico and the upper story. All of the windows are capped with segmental pediments. A balustrade fringing
576-420: Is standing on the exposed segment of a gigantic egg all but buried at the centre of the city at the centre of the world, as Michelangelo's historian Charles de Tolnay pointed out. An interlaced twelve-pointed star makes a subtle reference to the constellations, revolving around this space called Caput mundi , Latin for "head of the world." This paving design was never executed by the popes, who may have detected
640-597: Is the most important of the temples. It was built in 509 BC and was nearly as large as the Parthenon . The hill and the temple of Jupiter became the symbols of Rome, the capital of the world. The Temple of Saturn was built at the foot of Capitoline Hill in the western end of the Forum Romanum. When the Senones Gauls (settled in central-east Italy) raided Rome in 390 BC, after the battle of River Allia ,
704-620: Is the name of an Italian noble family , Patricians of Siena , who were prominent from the beginning of the 13th century until the 18th century. The family achieved the recognized titles of Pope of the Catholic Church, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire , Grandee of Spain, and Duke of Amalfi. The family is also featured in Florentine Histories , a book written by Niccolò Machiavelli , where he describes
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#1732787352126768-703: The Reichsgrafen (imperial counts), Freiherren (barons) and Reichsprälaten (imperial prelates), who formed with them the Imperial Diet assemblies, but held only collective votes. Around 1180, the secular Princes comprised the Herzöge (Dukes) who generally ruled larger territories within the Empire in the tradition of the former German stem duchies , but also the Counts of Anhalt and Namur ,
832-844: The Capitoline Museums ) that surround a piazza , an urban plan designed by Michelangelo . The word Capitolium still lives in the English word capitol , and Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. is widely assumed to be named after the Capitoline Hill. At this hill, the Sabines , creeping to the Citadel , were let in by the Roman maiden Tarpeia . For this treachery, Tarpeia was the first to be punished by being flung from
896-607: The Congress of Vienna in 1815 when it created the German Confederation and recognised a specific, elevated status ( Standesherren or Mediatized Houses ) for the mediatized princes of the defunct Empire. The actual titles used by Imperial nobles varied considerably for historical reasons, and included archdukes , dukes , margraves , landgraves , counts palatine , princely counts ( Gefürstete Grafen ), as well as princes and prince-electors . Moreover, most of
960-512: The Diet of Augsburg in 1582 explicitly stated that the status was inextricably linked with the possession of a particular Imperial territory. Later elevated noble families like the Fürstenberg , Liechtenstein or Thurn und Taxis dynasties subsequently began to refer to their territory as a "principality" and assumed the awarded rank of a Prince ( Fürst ) as a hereditary title . Most of
1024-639: The Florentines , although they retained their palaces, castles and about twenty fiefs, some of which were in the territory of Amalfi , to a great extent. Another branch of the family obtained great success in the Kingdom of Naples , becoming one of the "seven great houses" of the Kingdom. In the 17th century, two Piccolomini brothers, from the Modanella branch, were about to make a large family tree of
1088-630: The Forum and the Campus Martius , is one of the Seven Hills of Rome . The hill was earlier known as Mons Saturnius , dedicated to the god Saturn . The word Capitolium first meant the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus later built here, and afterwards it was used for the whole hill (and even other temples of Jupiter on other hills), thus Mons Capitolinus (the adjective noun of Capitolium ). In an etymological myth, ancient sources connect
1152-501: The Palazzo dei Conservatori , Palazzo Senatorio, and Palazzo Nuovo. Michelangelo designed a new façade for the dilapidated Palazzo dei Conservatori and he designed the Palazzo Nuovo to be a mirror complement, thereby providing balance and coherence to the ragged ensemble of existing structures. The construction of these two buildings were carried out after his death under the supervision of Tommaso dei Cavalieri . The sole arched motif in
1216-573: The Sienese colony as his new residence, became Podestà (chief magistrate), and abandoned his name, Chiaramontese, and changed it to Piccholuomo. The civil discords that agitated Rome in those times favored Siena because of their previous affiliation with the members of the Horatia gens , of which Chiaramontese belonged to. Having left from his homeland in Rome and also his surname, he came to live in
1280-651: The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus were destroyed in order to construct the palace. Until the cessation of World War I, the palazzo served as the German Embassy to Rome. Following the war, it was claimed by the Comune di Roma , which demolished a large section of the palazzo's east wing to create the Caffarelli Terrace. The Palazzo dei Conservatori ("Palazzo of the Conservators") was built in
1344-418: The cordonata , gradually ascending the hill to reach the high piazza, so that the Campidoglio resolutely turned its back on the Roman Forum that it had once commanded. It was built to be wide enough for horse riders to ascend the hill without dismounting. The railings are topped by the statues of two Egyptian lions in black basalt at their base and the marble renditions of Castor and Pollux at their top. On
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#17327873521261408-527: The Capitoline Hill was the one section of the city to evade capture by the barbarians, due to its being fortified by the Roman defenders. According to legend Marcus Manlius Capitolinus was alerted to the Gallic attack by the sacred Roman geese of Juno . When Julius Caesar suffered an accident during his triumph , clearly indicating the wrath of Jupiter for his actions in the Civil Wars , he approached
1472-580: The Counts who ruled territories were raised to Princely rank in the decades before the end of the Empire in 1806. Ecclesiastical Princes were the Prince-Bishops (including the Prince-Archbishops of Besançon , Bremen , Magdeburg and Salzburg ) as well as the actual Prince-abbots . They comprised a number of political entities which were secularized and mediatized after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia . The honorary status of prince of
1536-616: The Emperor. However, by the time the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, there were a number of holders of Imperial princely titles who did not meet these criteria. Thus, there were two main types of princes: those who exercised Landeshoheit ( sovereignty within one's territory while respecting the laws and traditions of the empire) as well as an individual or shared vote in the College of Princes , and those whose title
1600-473: The Farnese Pope Paul III , who wanted a symbol of the new Rome to impress Charles V , who was expected in 1538. This offered him the opportunity to build a monumental civic plaza for a major city as well as to reestablish the grandeur of Rome. Michelangelo's first designs for the piazza and remodeling of the surrounding palazzi date from 1536. His plan was formidably extensive. He accentuated
1664-585: The German fiefs in the Empire (except electorships) were heritable by all males of a family rather than by primogeniture , the princely title (or whatever title the family used) being likewise shared by all agnatic family members, male and female. The estate of imperial princes or Reichsfürstenstand was established in a legal sense in the Late Middle Ages . A particular estate of "the Princes"
1728-553: The Holy Roman Empire Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( Latin : princeps imperii , German : Reichsfürst , cf. Fürst ) was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor . Originally, possessors of the princely title bore it as immediate vassals of the Emperor who held a fief (secular or ecclesiastical) that had no suzerain except
1792-490: The Holy Roman Empire might be granted to certain individuals. These individuals included: Campidoglio 41°53′36″N 12°28′59″E / 41.89333°N 12.48306°E / 41.89333; 12.48306 The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( / ˈ k æ p ɪ t ə l aɪ n , k ə ˈ p ɪ t -/ KAP -it-ə-lyne, kə- PIT - ; Italian : Campidoglio [kampiˈdɔʎʎo] ; Latin : Mons Capitolinus [ˈmõːs kapɪtoːˈliːnʊs] ), between
1856-777: The Landgraves of Thuringia and the Margraves of Meissen . From the 13th century onwards, further estates were formally raised to the princely status by the emperor. Among the most important of these were the Welf descendants of Henry the Lion in Brunswick-Lüneburg , elevated to Princes of the Empire and vested with the ducal title by Emperor Frederick II in 1235, and the Landgraves of Hesse in 1292. The resolutions of
1920-488: The Middle Ages for the local magistrates (named " Conservatori of Rome ") on top of a sixth-century BC temple dedicated to Jupiter "Maximus Capitolinus". Michelangelo's renovation of it incorporated the first use of a giant order that spanned two storeys, here with a range of Corinthian pilasters and subsidiary Ionic columns flanking the ground-floor loggia openings and the second-floor windows. Michelangelo's new portico
1984-459: The Pope and nobles led to a senator taking up his official residence on the Capitoline Hill. The senator's new palazzo turned its back on the ancient forum, beginning the change in orientation on the hill that Michelangelo would later accentuate. A small piazza was laid out in front of the senator's palazzo, intended for communal purposes. In the middle of the 14th century, the guilds' court of justice
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2048-522: The Renaissance, the former center was an untidy conglomeration of dilapidated buildings and the site of executions of criminals. The church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli is adjacent to the square, located near where the ancient arx , or citadel, atop the hill it once stood. At its base are the remains of a Roman insula , with more than four storeys visible from the street. In the Middle Ages,
2112-608: The Roman Forum. The summit was the site of a temple for the Capitoline Triad , started by Rome's fifth king, Tarquinius Priscus ( r. 616–579 BC), and completed by the seventh and last king, Tarquinius Superbus (535–496 BC). It was considered one of the largest and the most beautiful temples in the city (although little now remains). The city legend starts with the recovery of a human skull (the word for head in Latin
2176-494: The Senator Abbondio Rezzonico in the 18th century. Its double ramp of stairs was designed by Michelangelo. This double stairway to the palazzo replaced the old flight of steps and two-storied loggia, which had stood on the right side of the palazzo. The staircase cannot be seen solely in terms of the building to which it belongs but must be set in the context of the piazza as a whole. The steps, beginning at
2240-571: The ancient forum located just to the south. Built during the 13th and 14th centuries, the Palazzo Senatorio ("Senatorial palace") stands atop the Tabularium, which had once housed the archives of ancient Rome. Peperino blocks from the Tabularium were re-used in the left side of the palazzo and a corner of the bell tower. It now houses the Roman city hall, after having been converted into a residence by Giovanni Battista Piranesi for
2304-462: The center axis of the palazzo. The Palazzo dei Conservatori was also to be restored, and a new building, the so-called Palazzo Nuovo, built at the same angle on the north side of the piazza to offset the Conservatori, creating a trapezoidal piazza. A wall and balustrade were to be built at the front of the square, giving it a firm delineation on the side facing the city. Finally, a flight of steps
2368-412: The center of each wing, move gently upward until they reach the inner corner, level off and recede to the main surface of the façade. They then continue an unbroken stateliness toward each other, converging on the central doorway of the second story. This interruption of the diagonal line and the brief inward change of direction both absorbs the central axis and links the two sides. The fountain in front of
2432-551: The entire Campidoglio design is the segmental pediments over their windows, which give a slight spring to the completely angular vertical-horizontal balance of the design. The three palazzi are now home to the Capitoline Museums . Adjacent and now serving as an annex to the Palazzo dei Conservatori is Palazzo Caffarelli Clementino; here, short-term exhibitions are held. The palazzo was built between 1576 and 1583 by Gregory Canonico for Gian Pietro Caffarelli II. The remaining ruins of
2496-414: The family. To seal their ancient genealogy with a legal certification, they commissioned a notary , Alessandro Rocchigiani, to put in order the various sources that disserted the family's origin. Evidently the fascination of myth, mixed with the reverence due to the illustrious patrons, instead of eliminating the legendary components ended up increasing them. Horatius Cocles was indicated with certainty, by
2560-409: The giant pilasters, capped the composition, one of the most influential of Michelangelo's designs. The two massive ancient statues of Castor and Pollux that decorate the balustrades are not the same as those posed by Michelangelo, which now are in front of the Palazzo del Quirinale. Next to the older and much steeper stairs leading to the Aracoeli, Michelangelo devised a monumental wide-ramped stair,
2624-481: The hill and Jupiter's temple on his knees as a way of averting the unlucky omen (nevertheless he was murdered six months later, and Brutus and his other assassins locked themselves inside the temple afterward). Vespasian's brother and nephew were also besieged in the temple during the Year of Four Emperors (69). During this incident the temple was destroyed by fire. The Tabularium , located underground beneath
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2688-408: The hill's sacred function was obscured by its other role as the center of the civic government of Rome, revived as a commune in the 12th century. The city's government was now to be firmly under papal control , but the Capitoline was the scene of movements of urban resistance, such as the dramatic scenes of Cola di Rienzo 's revived republic. In 1144, a revolt by the citizens against the authority of
2752-575: The imperial party had to scramble up the slope from the Forum to view the works in progress), but work continued faithfully to his designs and the Campidoglio was completed in the 17th century, except for the paving design, which was to be finished three centuries later. The bird's-eye view of the engraving by Étienne Dupérac shows Michelangelo 's solution to the problems of the space in the Piazza del Campidoglio. Even with their new facades centering them on
2816-405: The jurisdiction of Siena, and just as it is customary for men from one city when they move to another to take a different name from the usage of their native country, so it happened, Rocchigiani explained, that the Roman exile named Chiaramontese, took on in his new homeland the nickname Piccoluomo (Piccholuomo) from which the surname Piccolomini was later derived. The Piccolominis also descended from
2880-676: The name to caput ("head", "summit") and the tale was that, when laying the foundations for the temple, the head of a man was found, some sources even saying it was the head of some Tolus or Olus . The Capitolium was regarded by the Romans as indestructible, and was adopted as a symbol of eternity. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian , and Capitolium Campidoglio . The Capitoline Hill contains few ancient ground-level ruins, as they are almost entirely covered up by Medieval and Renaissance palazzi (now housing
2944-447: The new palazzo at the rear, the space was a trapezoid , and the facades did not face each other squarely. Worse still, the whole site sloped (to the left in the engraving). Michelangelo's solution was radical. The three remodelled palazzi enclose a harmonious trapezoidal space, approached by the ramped staircase called the cordonata . The stepped ramp of the cordonata was intended, like a slow-moving escalator, to lift its visitors toward
3008-417: The original equestrian statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Michelangelo provided an unassuming pedestal for it. The sculpture was held in regard because it was thought to depict Emperor Constantine , the first Christian Emperor. The bronze now in position is a modern copy; the original is in the Palazzo dei Conservatori nearby. He provided new fronts to the two official buildings of Rome's civic government,
3072-421: The past. An equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius was to stand in the middle of the piazza set in a paved oval field. Michelangelo was required to provide a setting for the statue and to bring order to an irregular hilltop already encumbered by two crumbling medieval buildings set at an acute angle to one another. The Palazzo del Senatore was to be restored with a double outer stairway, and the campanile moved to
3136-399: The piazza and hilltop, occupies a building of the same name built in the 1st century BC to hold Roman records of state. The Tabularium looks out from the rear onto the Roman Forum . The main attraction of the Tabularium, besides the structure itself, is the Temple of Veiovis . During the lengthy period of ancient Rome, the Capitoline Hill was the geographical and ceremonial center. However, by
3200-461: The piazza's symmetry and cover up the tower of the Aracoeli , the Palazzo Nuovo was constructed in 1603, finished in 1654, and opened to the public in 1734. Its facade duplicates to that of Palazzo dei Conservatori. In other words, it is an identical copy made using Michelangelo's blueprint when he redesigned the Palazzo dei Conservatori a century earlier. A balustrade, punctuated by sculptures atop
3264-434: The portico of the Palazzo dei Conservatori sheltered offices of various guilds. Here disputes arising in the transaction of business were adjudicated, unless they were of sufficient importance to go before a communal tribunal, such as that of the conservatori. It was a natural place for such activity. Until the 1470s the main market of the city was held on and around the Campidoglio, while cattle continued to be taxed and sold in
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#17327873521263328-467: The princely states of the Holy Roman Empire had to meet three requirements: Not all states met all three requirements, so one may distinguish between effective and honorary princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Princes of the Empire ranked below the seven Prince-electors ( Kurfürsten ; archaic spelling Churfürsten ) designated by the Golden Bull of 1356 (and later electors), but above
3392-713: The reign of Pope Pius II , who had allied himself with the Venetians and Prince Vlad Dracula , to wage a war against the Sultan of the Ottoman empire . In 1220, Engelberto d'Ugo Piccolomini received the fief of Montertari in Val d'Orcia from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II as a reward for the services rendered. The family acquired houses and towers in Siena as well as castles and territories in
3456-504: The republic, including Montone and Castiglione ; the latter sold to the comune in 1321. They obtained great wealth through trade, and established counting-houses ( merchant banks ) in Venice , Genoa , Trieste , Aquileia , and in various cities of France and Germany . Supporters of the Guelph cause in the civil broils by which Siena was torn, they were driven from the city during
3520-464: The reversal of the classical orientation of the Capitoline, in a symbolic gesture turning Rome's civic center to face away from the Roman Forum and instead in the direction of Papal Rome and the Christian church in the form of St. Peter's Basilica . This full half circle turn can also be seen as Michelangelo's desire to address the new, developing section of the city rather than the ancient ruins of
3584-430: The roof emphasizes the emphatic horizontality of the whole against which the vertical lines of the orders rise in majestic contrast. The verticality of the colossal order creates the feeling of a self-contained space while the horizontality of the entablatures and balustrades emphasize the longitudinal axis of the piazza. The palazzo's facade was updated by Michelangelo in the 1530s and again later numerous times. In Rome,
3648-415: The sky and deposit them on the threshold of municipal authority. The oval shape combined with the diamond pattern within it was a play on the previous Renaissance geometries of the circle and square. The travertine design set into the paving is perfectly level: Around its perimeter, low steps arise and die away into the paving as the slope requires. Its centre springs slightly, so that one senses that he/she
3712-556: The staircase features the river gods of the Tiber and the Nile as well as Dea Roma . The upper part of the facade was designed by Michelangelo with colossal corinthian pilasters harmonizing with the two other buildings. Its bell-tower was designed by Martino Longhi the Elder and built between 1578 and 1582. Its current facade was built by Giacomo della Porta and Girolamo Rainaldi. To close off
3776-406: The time of King Manfred of Sicily . Their houses were demolished but they returned in triumph after the victory of the Angevin Kings . They were expelled once more during the brief reign of King Conradin , and again returned to Siena with the help of King Charles of Anjou . But through their riotous political activity, the Piccolominis lost their commercial influence, which passed into the hands of
3840-428: The zealous notary, as the new progenitor of the family. Undoubtedly some coincidences arouse astonishment. Indeed, in the column that adorned the Campidoglio , his enterprise, was a coat of arms identical to that of the Sienese family, stood out carved in the shield of the ancient Roman . Once attached to Horace, the Piccolomini lineage had, in ancient Rome, the name of Parenzi, and from there one of its members chose
3904-424: Was honorary (the possessor lacking an immediate Imperial fief and/or a vote in the Imperial Diet). The first came to be reckoned as "royalty" in the sense of being treated as sovereigns, entitled to inter-marry with reigning dynasties. The second tier consisted of high-ranking nobles whose princely title did not, however, imply equality with royalty. These distinctions evolved within the Empire, but were codified by
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#17327873521263968-415: Was constructed on the southern end of the piazza. This would later house the Conservatori in the 15th century. As a result, the piazza was already surrounded by buildings by the 16th century. The existing design of the Piazza del Campidoglio and the surrounding palazzi was created by Renaissance artist and architect Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536–1546. At the height of his fame, he was commissioned by
4032-455: Was first mentioned in the decree issued by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1180 at the Imperial Diet of Gelnhausen , in which he divested Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria . About fifty years later, Eike of Repgow codified it as an emanation of feudal law recorded in his Sachsenspiegel , where the lay princes formed the third level or Heerschild in the feudal military structure below ecclesiastical princes. Officially
4096-449: Was to lead up to the enclosed piazza from below, further accentuating the central axis. The sequence, cordonata , piazza, and the central palazzo are the first urban introduction of the "cult of the axis" that was to occupy Italian garden plans and reach fruition in France. Executing the design was slow: Little was actually completed in Michelangelo's lifetime (the Cordonata Capitolina was not in place when Emperor Charles arrived, and
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