Piazza Navona is one of Rome's most iconic squares for its beauty and history.
In antiquity, in 85 AD, was built, where now the famous square lies, the Stadium of Domitian, also called Circus Agonalis, because of the games that took place there were called "agones". The name of the square "Piazza Navona ":" agone ", became over the centuries "in agone" from which "Navone" and finally "Navona ".
The Stadium was 276 meters long, 106 wide and could accommodate 30,000 spectators. The current form of the square repeats the elongated rectangle of the ancient arena, the buildings that surround it have sprung up where the steps of the stadium were. The external facade of the stadium consisted of two rows of arches with Ionic half-columns.
It was in the fifteenth century, the square became one of the largest gathering points of Rome, when one of the most popular markets of the city was moved here. Over the years, Piazza Navona became the site of many festivals and processions.
Between 1572 and 1585 Gregory XIII had built there three fountains, and in 1647 Pope Innocent X commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to the construction of the central fountain of the "Four Rivers": Danube, Ganges, Rio de la Plata and the Nile.
It was the same Pope Innocent X who decided to raise a huge, 16.54 meter high, granite obelisk in the center of the fountain. The obelisk was found by the pope at the Circus of Maxentius, but originally stood in the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius.
It is in this beautiful setting that you can spend your vacation in Rome, staying in one of the beautiful bed and breakfasts near Piazza Navona with air conditioning that we have collected for you in the following list.
