ROME – bones & fountains

Monday – taking up from the last post we are now heading off to see the Moses Fountain and Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini or more commonly known as The Chapel of the Bones.

The skies are still stormy but we decide to risk it and if the storms hit then I am sure that we will find a coffee/pizza place somewhere to take refuge.

To reach our first goal we have to go past the Trevi Fountain which will be good as we will get to see it in the day light.

We arrive and to say that I am disappointed is not right – but I do not have the same feeling as I had when I saw it under light.  There are still loads of people but the good thing is that there are not as many non-Italian photographers trying to scam the poor unsuspecting tourists.

We stay here for only a short time before heading off to our next fountain – The Triton.  It is a rather long walk and some of it uphill but we manage to get there all in one piece and again I am a bit disappointed.  I think our night time walk has spoilt us for the fountains in daylight.  The lights against the marble and shining through the rippling water give the fountains an eternal amazement.

The Triton Fountain is a seventeenth century fountain by the well-known Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Commissioned by his patron, Pope Urban VIII, the fountain is located in the Piazza Barberini, near the entrance to the Palazzo Barberini which now houses the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica that Bernini helped to design and construct for the Barberini, Urban’s family.

The fountain was executed in travertine in 1642-43. At its centre rises a larger than life size muscular Triton, a minor sea god of ancient Greco-Roman legend, depicted as a merman kneeling on the sum of four dolphin tail fins.

His head is thrown back and his arms raise a conch to his lips; from it a jet of water spurts, formerly rising dramatically higher than it does today.

Consulting our trusty maps – it is now time to head to Kylie’s contribution for the day – the Chapel of the Bones.  I am not that fussed to look at bones and skeletons but apparently it is a place of beauty (?)

Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini – from the outside there is nothing special about this 17th-century church but dip into the Capuchin cemetery below and you’ll be gob smacked. The photo of the outside is the only time we can use our camera.

When we go inside we are told there is definitely no photography inside and yes – even I have to pay attention to this.  We are told we must put our cameras in our bags and we will be asked to leave if we are caught taking photos.

This is not just for us but for the few in front of us and behind – one good thing though there are not many people here.

This photo is from the web – everything from the picture frames to the light fittings is made of human bones.

Between 1528 and 1870 the resident Capuchin monks used the bones of 4000 of their departed brothers to create the mesmerizing and macabre display.

There’s an arch crafted from hundreds of skulls, vertebrae used as fleurs-de-lys, and light fixtures made of femurs.

Obviously they didn’t have much to occupy their minds in those days and it gives me the creeps looking at all these bones.  It is a small area and the alcoves are off a rather narrow corridor.

After we have had our fill it is back to the lady at the counter where Kylie buys some postcards – a poor man’s substitute for no photos allowed.

The last port of call for today is the Moses Fountain so it’s goodbye to the bones and off we go in search of another fountain.

The Moses Fountain was constructed in 1587 during the reign of Sixtus V and it commemorates the opening of the Acqua Felice. Granted it is not a fountain of Trevi proportions – it is not even classed as a major fountain by Rome standards, but it is interesting.

Everyone in Rome who wanted clean drinking water had to go to the single fountain near the site of today’s Trevi Fountain. Pope Sixtus took on the responsibility of restoring other aqueducts, including the Acqua Alessandrina, which he renamed Acqua Felice.

There are three arches and within each of the arches are sculptures on Old Testament subjects.   To the left is Aaron, sculpted by Giovanni Battista della Portacentral, the central arch features a large statue of Moses, made in 1588 by Leonardo Sormani and Prospero da Brescia and to the right is Joshua sculpted by Flaminio Vacca and Pietro Paolo Oliveri. Water flows from the statues into basins, where four lions are spouting water.

Did I say this was our last port of call?  On the way back home we stumble across the Piazza della Repubblica and the Fountain of the Naiads. The Piazza is at the top of the Viminal Hill next to the main train station.

The fountain in this square was originally the fountain of the Acqua Pia.  Completed in 1888, it originally showed four chalk lions which were replaced in 1901 with sculptures of Naiads. 

The naiads represented are the Nymph of the Lakes (recognisable by the swan she holds), the Nymph of the Rivers (stretched out on a monster of the rivers), the Nymph of the Oceans (riding a horse symbolising of the sea), and the Nymph of the Underground Waters (leaning over a mysterious dragon). In the centre is Rutelli’s Glauco group (1911/12), symbolizing the dominion of the man over natural force and replacing a previous sculpture.

After walking around here for a while and realising that we are now quite a distance from home – we decide to get a cab back and save our tired little tootsies.

Tomorrow is our big day adventure to Pompeii – so it will be an early start and we need to be fresh and rearing to go.

Highlight of Part 2 – dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones!