Roman Aqueducts & Papal Fountains
The Papal Fountain, Via del Mandrione
Oil on Panel
20 x 25 cm
SOLD
This is a special place in Rome that as a tourist you most likely will never see.
Here is where 2 Roman aqueducts, Claudia and Felice, intersect and where Pope Clement the XII placed this fountain in 1733.
Passing under the arch to the right, still a street for cars to drive on, you enter into what I like to think of as an aqueduct alley where the 2 run so closely parallel that they create a highly walled street.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
In July of 1943 the Allies bombed the neighborhood of San Lorenzo in order block Rome’s principal train station Termini. Thousands of families were left without a home and went to live under the arches of the aqueducts on this road.
The city of Rome cleaned up aqueduct alley in the second half of the 1970s, but if you walk or ride a bicycle along the road you can still see signs of people having lived here. There are even a few remaining and renovated homes behind the aqueducts on either side, I envy them a little bit! Imagine having the arch of an aqueduct as your front yard.
Today this is a major 3-way intersection and the aqueduct’s arches serve as lane dividers. Luckily there are a few places to get out of the traffic and tuck into a corner if you want to set up your easel.
This is just one of so many examples where Rome is a living history showing you all of its layers and is thrilling to paint and be a part of today.