Piazza del Popolo opens at the northern entrance to Rome, where an Egyptian obelisk and three diverging streets organize the city beyond the gate. Its formal geometry reflects centuries of papal planning and later redesign.
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The obelisk stands at the center of a fan of streets, making Piazza del Popolo feel like a hinge between Rome and the roads leading into it. The Flaminian Obelisk was carved in Egypt in the thirteenth century BCE, brought to Rome by Augustus, and first erected in the Circus Maximus.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- The Flaminian Obelisk was made in Egypt around 1300 BCE.
- Augustus brought it to Rome in 10 BCE for the Circus Maximus.
- Pope Sixtus V moved it to Piazza del Popolo in 1589.
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