She is also the patron saint of Rome, together with saint Peter and saint Paul. This popular tradition of invoking Francesca to protect motorists started as a consequence of the diffusion of cars in 1951.
Santa Francesca Romana is the patron saint of drivers and Roman motorists. She is also the patron saint of Rome, together with saint Peter and saint Paul. This popular tradition of invoking Francesca to protect motorists started as a consequence of the diffusion of cars in 1951. The monastery of Tor the Specchi continues nowadays to be the house of the congregation of the Oblates of Santa Francesca Romana, an order the saint Francesca founded in 1425. The monastery is the place where she lived form 1436 till the end of her life in 1440.
The little cell where she slept is still visible today in its pure simplicity. Its located in the very heart of Rome, just below the capitol hill but open to the public on March 9th only. The monastery is still located in the same house that Francesca purchased in 1436 to be the residence of her religious community of ladies. It’s quite untouched since then. The oratory and refectory have wonderful frescoes ornaments and cycles splendidly well preserved. The artists accomplishing these frescoes in 1468 are believed to be Antoniazzo Romano, Benozzo Gozzoli and their schools. Saint Francesca is one of the most venerated roman saint and the patroness of the Romans. She lived in Rome at the beginning of the 14th hundreds. Francesca Ponziani belonged to an aristocratic family and accepted to get married even if she wished to undertake the monastic life. She was renewed for the care and asistence she paid to the sick and humble people. She manage to accomplish her family duties and find time to assist the needy and pray. After her husband passed away she finally took the votes. Michelangelo was a man inclined to ascetism.
In many of the letters he wrote to his relatives at home he remarked his poverty and strenuos life. Giorgio Vasari report about the simplicity fo his clothes annd his reluctance to change them. Condivi, Michelangelo's biographer, add that he often worked so hard that he had no food or sleep.
Where can you find security check, just outside the squareFirst of all tickets for all Papal ceremonies are issued free of charge. If some agencies or guides charge you for the ticket they are dishonest and against the spirit of the Pope.
To attend a Papal Audience the ticket is required but not compulsory for individuals. Pilgrims and groups write the Prefecture of the Papal Household ahead of time to advise of their participation, hence their name will be listed and they will be introduced to the Pope. A precise info is also needed to place the correct number of seats in the square. However if you don't have the chance to get a ticket ahead of time you can join the audience entering the square even when the Audience has already started. I've done it several times with guests that expressed the desire just on the touring day. How to get the tickets Below there are different options: Contact The Prefecture of the Papal Household or Santa Susanna American Community in Rome. Get your ticket the day before asking the swiss guards in saint Peter square or at Sant Anna gate. More info about meeting the Pope This is a report of the main happenings occurring in the 5 years of the Jews rebellion that led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70ad. The main information on this period comes from ancient reports, mainly the one of Josephus the priest (37-100ad), a Jewish general captured by Vespasian in 68ad who wrote ‘the Jewish war’. In May 66ad the roman governor in Judea - Gessius Florius- sent his troops to Jerusalem’s upper market with instructions to kill everyone. The deaths were 3600: men, women and children. The governor demanded the Jews to demonstrate their submission by greeting 2 cohorts entering Jerusalem, as the Jews rebelled the consequence was terrible. At that time in Jerusalem there was a moderate party of the Jews led by Agrippa II (27-93ad), great grandson of Herod the great (73-4bc) appointed by the Romans. They attempted to cease the protest with no luck. The Jews were divided into the war party and the peace party. The priest Eleazar, captain of the temple, forbidden sacrifice paid by strangers thus impeding the longstanding custom of demonstrating loyalty by making offers to the temple on behalf of the emperor and Rome. According to Josephus, our main source of information, 'this action laid the foundation of the war with Rome'. I was walking to the subway from the Borghese Gallery today.
I had the beautiful memories of the masterpieces of the art gallery in my mind when I saw this remains of the first city walls of Rome built about 24 hundreds years ago. The servian walls were built to defend the city after the Gaul invasion of 390bc. The circuit was 11 km long and, as you can see, was made of big blocks of vulcanic stone: the tufa. The legend of Michelangelo being a lonely painter taking care of the strenuous work of painting alone the 12.000 square feet of the Sistine chapel is not true. When Michelangelo got the commission he was an extremely skilled sculptor but initially lacked familiarity with the complex fresco technique. He also had still in mind the project of the tomb of Julius II and it’s believed he wanted to delegate a large part of the pictorial execution to assistants. Michelangelo got a Florentine friend that he trusted: his name was Francesco Granacci. The 2 artists had studied together in Ghirlandaio workshop and in the garden of San Marco, that Michelangelo eventually entered thanks to Granacci's advise. Granacci never begun a very renewed painter. He was unambitious, an easy living man and had a relaxed temper. In fact he specialized in less important decoration as theatrical scenery, banners for churches and knights, triumphal arches for parades. Granacci’s lack of desire for glory was engaging for Michelangelo. Granacci easily acknowledged his supremacy, there was not artistic competition. He entrusted Francesco Granacci to recruit the assistant he needed in Florence. The length of the structure was 620m and between 140-150 meters wide. The seating surrounded the all of the arena with steps that were 1400m long. Each row could house 3500 spectators. The seats were 40am wide, 50cm in dept and the height of the step was 33cm. There were probably about 50 rows of seats summing up at least 150000 spectators. The racetrack was 550-580m long and 80m wide, with a total surface of 44.000square meters (12 times more than the coliseum). The track was covered with the finest sand, aimed to absorb easily the rain in case of bad weather and not to lift too much dust on the audience. The ‘spina’ : the central path around which the chariots were turning was 340 m long. In the Circus Maximus men and women sat together, it was an opportunity to start new love affairs… The two painters had very distant personalities. Raphael was sociable and courtly while Michelangelo was a solitary man. We know they once met in Saint Peter square: Michelangelo was alone, while Raphael was surrounded by many pupils and admirers. Michelangelo said to Raphael: ' you, with your band, like a bravo' Raphael replied: 'and you alone, like the hangman'. This extraordinary sarcophagus was found in 1931 near the Tiburtina road, just outside the ancient city of Rome. It can be dated to 180AD. It shows the scene of a battle, staged on two levels rendered in a very vivid way. The winning Romans can be seen in the upper level while the defeated barbarians are humiliated and defeated below them. A roman horseman, in the centre- surely the owner of the tomb, is depicted in the guise of universal victor. The top part of the coffin also celebrates the dead man and his wife: The woman exercises her virtues in the house, weaving and educating the children; while the man, after his warlike activities, receives the submission of the enemies. This is a late Hellenistic artwork made in pentelic marble, the one of Athens. It was found in 1886 on via Labicana, not far away from the coliseum on the slopes of the esquiline hill. The ancient regional catalogues –lists of sites within an Augustan region- dating back to 2000 years ago, reported the presence of an Iseum, or temple of Isis. The head was in the temple, I believe. It’s exquisite and very charming. Now it’s location is the Centrale Montemartini museum in Rome. Centrale Montemartini museum It’s one of the most incredible places in Rome and often unfortunately seen just as a corridor, no matter how beautiful and long, to the Sistine Chapel. In my opinion the Map Gallery is worth itself a visit to the Vatican museum. First of all, it is over 400 years old. Along the gallery there are 32 large maps depicting the different regions of Italy facing either the west coast, on the left inside, or the east coast, on the right end. From south leading north. The accuracy of the maps painted there is amazing if we consider the lack of technology of those days. I can understand, looking at this sculpture, the fascination the minotaur’s had in the past and over the centuries. This splendid sculpture displayed in Rome in the Palazzo Massimo museum, shows the great contrast between beauty and the wild, intellect and nature. The torso is really astounding while the head is so brutal! It also depicts the inner essence of human beings, where both intellect or passions and violence coexist. It was done on purpose back then, over 2000 years ago. This is an ancient roman copy of a sculpture by the famous Miron. The minotaur bust was part of a sculptural group depicting Theseus fighting and eventually winning over the beast. The inclination of the minotaur’s head suggests he’s going to be hit by Theseus. The mythological story is aimed to assert Athens independence over the Cretan influence. The king of Crete’s wife got this love affair with a bull (this story deserves another blog) and gave birth to the minotaur: half man half bull. Since the Athenians had lost a war with Crete (or had killed the son of Crete’s king Minos –there are different version of the myth), together with the minotaur heating only humans, the Athenians had to send 7 boys and 7 maidens to Crete to fed the beast. Theseus, the son of Athens’s king Aegeus, went to Crete to kill the minotaur and eventually succeeded. Palazzo Massimo Museum It was found in 1886 in Rome, in what is nowadays piazza Sciarra. It’s a splendid copy of a classical Greek bronze work dating from the Vth century bc, same period as the Parthenon in Athens. There are similarities in style with the work of Phidias, that we’re still dreaming about… The head is a plaster cast of another similar statue, now in the Louvre, found in Velletri – a village on the roman hills south of Rome. The statue was made with marble from Thassus, in Greece. Centrale Montemartini Museum As you know in the circuses were large valleys, with seats all around, used in the ancient roman times for chariot races. The chariots were turning around a central line called ‘spina’. The most famous hippodrome of the past is the Circus Maximus in Rome. Augustus in 10bc brought an obelisk from Egypt to decorate the ‘spina’. The obelisks were considered, by both Egyptian and Romans, to represent the connection between the sky and the earth. The hippodrome was a little model of the cosmos: The obelisk was the sun, the ground represented the earth and the canal running in the middle of the spina was the sea. The four factions of chariot raiders represented the 4 seasons. Via di San Gregorio is a modern (1930s) road known by everyone being the main connection between the Circus Maximus and the triumphal Arch of Constantine and Coliseum. During the works to open the road the remains of a temple were unearthed and can be found now in the Capitoline museum.
It’s the temple of ‘Fortuna Respicens’ and let’s see the meaning it had. It’s hard to imagine but this route was used since the extreme past. The triumphal processions were passing here. Since the age of the roman republic the winning generals were awarded to enter the city together with the army, their booty and prisoners and to be welcomed and praised by all the roman citizens. It was the only time when the army was welcomed in town and the most important happenings in the past. The Circus Maximus is nowadays a large valley between the Aventine and Palatine hill nevertheless its story is connected to the very origin of Rome. According to the legend, the founder and first king of Rome, Romolo, used these space to organize a celebration to the god Conso. Romolo got a problem: he started a city with plenty of men and few women, and the surrounding tribes were not willing to intermarry with the Romans. The roman museum Centrale Montemartini houses a larger selection of ancient artworks, part of the Capitoline collection.
This large floor mosaic was found while creating a car tunnel below the Termini railways station. It belonged to a large hall only partially unearthed. According to professor Coarelli the room was part of a large imperial residence built for emperor Constantine after his roman conquer at the beginning of the IV century AD, and finished later on by emperor Costante. The scene depicted is extremely interesting as it displays the capture of wild beast to be used in the anphitheatre during the morning hunting. Same subject can be found in the famous villa Armellina in Sicily. Centrale Montemartini Museum The Claudia acqueduct was begun by emperor Caligula and finished by Claudius. It's beginning is 35 miles away from the city of Rome in the Sabine mountains. Owing to some needed turns the total length of the acqueduct was 45 miles. 35 miles were subterranean canals and 10 miles were open-air structures, the famous archways . A branch was extended to supply enough water to the splendid imperial residence on the palatine hill. Next Sunday, April 27, 2014 the greatest popes of the XXth century will became saints. There is a great excitement on town and lots of people exploring the city. A large number of streets surrounding St. Peter square has already been closed to parking and will be not accessible to the traffic starting from tomorrow. I'm walking to the Vatican museum entrance surrounded by large groups of smiling pilgrims heading to St. Peter basilica. It's only 8.30 in the morning! The monumental access to the Vatican museum was opened in the 1930s. In the past months scaffoldings were surrounding it due to restoration. The gate has been revealed again this week with the travertine limestone all cleaned. Atop there are the seated sculptures depicting Michelangelo –left end, bearded and not very handsome- and Raphael – right, young and fascinating. Both artists are considered the symbol of this extraordinary art collection. |
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