Square

Piazza della Repubblica

Rome, Italy

Piazza della Repubblica — Wikimedia Commons image

Piazza della Repubblica traces the curve of an ancient bath complex in the form of a nineteenth-century colonnade. The Naiads Fountain and the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli connect Roman water systems with modern urban redesign.

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The semicircle of buildings around this piazza follows the enormous exedra of the Baths of Diocletian. That ancient outline was recast in the late nineteenth century by architect Gaetano Koch as part of Rome’s modernization after it became the capital of Italy.

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Quick facts

  • The piazza’s semicircle follows the exedra of the Baths of Diocletian.
  • Gaetano Koch designed the late nineteenth-century square.
  • The Naiads Fountain project by Mario Rutelli was approved in 1897.

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