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61-592: The original Vulcanal was an open-air altar on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill in Rome in the area that would later become the Comitium and Roman Forum . It was located in the open here, between the hill-villages, in the days before Rome existed, because the fire god was considered to be too destructive to be located anywhere near an occupied house. (He was mainly worshiped in order to avert fires.) It contained

122-537: A lotus tree and cypress tree long honored as being older than the city of Rome itself. According to literary sources, the site originally featured a sculpture of a four-horse chariot ( quadriga ) celebrating Romulus' victory over the Caeninenses (citizens of Caenina ) — and said to have been dedicated by Romulus himself. This was later supplemented with a statue of that king, inscribed with Greek letters and celebrating his deeds. Other monuments erected here from

183-529: A base, surmounted by a pediment and surrounded by columns. In ancient Roman architecture the aedicula has this representative function in the society. They are installed in public buildings like the triumphal arch , city gate , and thermae . The Library of Celsus in Ephesus ( c.  2 AD) is a good example. From the 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire onwards such shrines, or

244-476: 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,

305-409: A little building that sets it apart from the wall against which it is placed. A tabernacle frame on a wall serves similar hieratic functions as a free-standing, three-dimensional architectural baldaquin or a ciborium over an altar . In Late Gothic settings, altarpieces and devotional images were customarily crowned with gables and canopies supported by clustered-column piers, echoing in small

366-627: A new marble altar (discovered in 1548 and now in the Naples Museum ). The Emperor Domitian ( r. 81-96 AD) did likewise, presenting a new marble-faced altar and sacrificing a red calf and boar. Later in the Imperial period, the Vulcanal area suffered by being very much narrowed and partly done away with altogether by building operations associated with the enlargement of the Temple of Concord,

427-615: A place of worship, the Vulcanal became the Assembly place during the Roman monarchy in the days before the Comitium and Old Rostra ( Rostra Vetera ) existed. According to longstanding Roman tradition, the Vulcanal served as the speaker's platform at this time, a function much later assumed by the immediately adjacent Rostra. The archaic site had long been reverently preserved when, in 9 AD, the Emperor Augustus refurbished it with

488-482: 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

549-784: 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

610-400: 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

671-472: 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

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732-458: 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

793-660: Is a small shrine , and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns and typically framing a statue , the early Christian ones sometimes contained funeral urns. Aediculae are also represented in art as a form of ornamentation. The word aedicula is the diminutive of the Latin aedes , a temple building or dwelling place. The Latin word has been anglicised as " aedicule " and as " edicule ". Describing post-antique architecture, especially Renaissance architecture , aedicular forms may be described using

854-548: Is just behind the Umbilicus Urbi and the (future) New Rostra ( Rostra Augusti ). Boni uncovered a small shrine here that had been cut directly out of the natural tufa and had tufa blocks defining a precinct area (identified from literary sources as the Area Volcani ). This excavated site is about 13 by 9 feet, but the original Vulcanal is thought to have been somewhat larger. Boni's identification of this spot as

915-420: 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

976-597: 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 ,

1037-844: 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

1098-630: 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

1159-501: 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

1220-556: The Temple of Concordia . 41°53′33.82″N 12°29′4.44″E  /  41.8927278°N 12.4845667°E  / 41.8927278; 12.4845667 Capitoline Hill 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

1281-651: 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

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1342-418: 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

1403-517: The 1740s, by such designers as William Kent . Aediculae feature prominently in the arrangement of the Saint Peter's tomb with statues by Bernini ; a small aedicula directly underneath it, dated ca. 160 AD, was discovered in 1940. Similar small shrines, called naiskoi , are found in Greek religion , but their use was strictly religious. Aediculae exist today in Roman cemeteries as

1464-527: 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

1525-473: 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

1586-488: 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

1647-459: 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

1708-522: 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,

1769-608: 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

1830-494: 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

1891-626: The Vulcanal may not only have been associated with it but may have been identical with this shrine. (According to him, the altar identified by Boni as the Vulcanal was actually the Ara Saturni , or Altar of Saturn ). Coarelli's hypothesis has received a mixed reception. While a number of authorities believe he is correct, other experts continue to insist that Boni's site is the correct one. For example, Richardson's authoritative A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome , published almost 10 years after Coarelli's work, has this to say: The Vulcanal

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1952-501: The Vulcanal stood virtually unchallenged for over 80 years. In 1983, however, Filippo Coarelli associated the Vulcanal with the site (also uncovered by Boni decades before) that by Imperial times had become known as the Lapis Niger . This archaic (8th century BC) sacred site may have been more or less contemporary with the Vulcanal. An altar (known as "Altar G-H" to archeologists) had also been found here and Coarelli suggested that

2013-571: 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

2074-634: The architecture of Gothic churches. Painted aediculae frame figures from sacred history in initial letters of illuminated manuscripts . Classicizing architectonic structure and décor all'antica , in the "ancient [Roman] mode", became a fashionable way to frame a painted or bas-relief portrait, or protect an expensive and precious mirror during the High Renaissance ; Italian precedents were imitated in France, then in Spain, England and Germany during

2135-462: 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

2196-412: 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

2257-458: The construction of the adjacent Arch of Severus , and other public works. The precise location of the Vulcanal within what is now the west end of the Roman Forum is not completely settled. Two sites have been seriously proposed. Giacomo Boni , who excavated extensively in this area in 1899–1905, established a site about 40 meters to the southwest of the Lapis Niger as the Vulcanal. This

2318-499: The earliest times included a statue of Horatius Cocles and another standing on a column and representing an actor who had been struck by lightning during the games in the Circus Maximus . Behind the excavated foundation of the altar of Vulcan are traces of a flight of steps, cut into the tufa of the Capitoline Hill, which lead up to the vestibule of the Temple of Concord , just to the northwest. In addition to its function as

2379-551: 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

2440-455: The framework enclosing them, are often called by the Biblical term tabernacle , which becomes extended to any elaborated framework for a niche, window or picture. In Gothic architecture , too, an aedicula or tabernacle is a structural framing device that gives importance to its contents, whether an inscribed plaque, a cult object , a bust or the like, by assuming the tectonic vocabulary of

2501-409: 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,

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2562-485: The grassy incline to the northwest of the cordonata is the Monument to Cola di Rienzo installed in 1886. Influenced by Roman architecture and Roman republican times, the word Capitolium still lives in the English word capitol . The Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. is widely assumed to be named after the Capitoline Hill. Aedicula In ancient Roman religion , an aedicula ( pl. : aediculae )

2623-481: 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

2684-408: 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

2745-575: 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

2806-468: The later 16th century. Aedicular door surrounds that are architecturally treated, with pilasters or columns flanking the doorway and an entablature even with a pediment over it came into use with the 16th century. In the neo-Palladian revival in Britain, architectonic aedicular or tabernacle frames, carved and gilded, are favourite schemes for English Palladian mirror frames of the late 1720s through

2867-676: 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

2928-447: 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

2989-417: 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,

3050-421: 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

3111-399: 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

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3172-461: 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

3233-434: 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

3294-464: 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

3355-430: 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,

3416-415: 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

3477-556: 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

3538-526: The word tabernacle , as in tabernacle window . Many aediculae were household shrines ( lararia ) that held small altars or statues of the Lares and Di Penates . The Lares were Roman deities protecting the house and the family household gods. The Penates were originally patron gods (really genii ) of the storeroom, later becoming household gods guarding the entire house. Other aediculae were small shrines within larger temples , usually set on

3599-467: 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

3660-481: Was distinctly higher than the forum...and Comitium...[T]he kings and magistrates transacted public business there...public assemblies were regularly held there.... [It] was also big enough to include a bronze aedicula .... All this taken together indicates that originally the Vulcanal covered the lower slope of the Capitoline along the stair that extended the line of the Sacra Via up the hill, an area later covered by

3721-581: 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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