Baroque Rome: The Age of Bernini and Borromini
Details
Tour Route:
Piazza Navona
Santa Maria della Pace
Sant’Agostino
Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza
Piazza Rotonda (Pantheon)
Palazzo Montecitorio
Piazza Colona
Piazza Sant’Ignazio
Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps
Duration: 2.5 hours
Meeting point: Piazza Navona at the Fountain of the Four Rivers
Starting time: 5.00 pm
Entrance Fees
None. This tour includes all entrance fees.
Special Requirements
If you have special requirements, please contact us as early as possible to see if we can accommodate your needs. Email us or call +39 06 3972 3051
Terms & Conditions
Tour bookings are on a first come, first served basis, unless you
have made an early reservation and have our confirmation email. All
ticket sales are final. To cancel or change your booking, please contact
us as early as possible. We will do our best to assist you. Read our Cancellation & Amendment Policy here.
Walking Tour
Time: 2.5 hours
Cost: €25
The Tour
Overview: A 2+ hour itinerary that explores the art and
architecture of Baroque Rome. Special emphasis is given to the works of
Bernini and Borromini and their relationships with their patrons – the
popes who were the most extravagant of all.
Description: This itinerary celebrates the blossoming of
Rome’s last great urban identity – the Baroque. Emphasizing the splendor
and theatricality of the architecture, sculpture, and painting
exemplified by mid 17th century Church, which firstly appeared in the
innovative designs of Carlo Maderno, further developed in the works of
Pietro da Cortona, and entering its most highly charged expressions in
the masterpieces of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, the
Roman Baroque inspired the designs of buildings and spaces in Europe for
over a century.
In a new style of unity, coherence, and dynamism, and as a powerful
propaganda tool of the Catholic Church’s Counter-Reformation, the
Baroque’s fluid integration of architecture with its surroundings is
marvelously demonstrated firstly in Bernini’s Fountain of the Four
Rivers where our itinerary begins. Here in Piazza Navona, a distant
reflection of the decadent days of the Roman Empire, we learn of how
Bernini’s baroque figures assume new importance as movement and energy
come together in dynamic forms reaching outwards into the surrounding
space.
Our next stop is at the Church of Santa Maria della Pace where a
classic example of high baroque architecture in the work of Pietro da
Cortona is seen. Continuing on through Rome’s theatrical piazza, passing
by baroque monuments, ornamental fountains and Church façades with
spiraled lanterns around empty vortexes, we see the bold massing of the
baroque style coming together at magical spaces such as Piazza Rotanda,
Piazza Montecitoria and Filippo Raguzinni’s Piazza di Sant’Ignazio.
Raguzinni’s light-and-shade with “painterly” colors reflect the bold
play of volume and void in Algardi’s monumental façade, creating one of
Rome’s most characteristic baroque squares.
Out next stop is undoubtedly Rome’s, perhaps the world’s, most
distinguished fountain -- the Trevi. Here we learn about one of the last
and most famous monuments of the baroque era in Rome. We end our walk
at the immense and romantic exterior staircase that had no parallel in
previous architecture -- the Spanish Steps.
On this itinerary, as we discover the artists, their artworks and
patrons along the way, the principles of architecture, urban planning,
and art discussed, will enable us to view the whole city with new eyes
and have an appreciation for how the Baroque has made an everlasting
impact on the world’s artistic expression.
