Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Marder, Tod A. "The Porto di Ripetta in Rome." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 39, No. 1 (March 1980), pp. 28- 56.

Tempesta, Antonio. Plan of the City of Rome. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1645.

]]> By the time Pope Leo IV (847-855) fortified Porta Portese (Rome's southernmost gate) with three defensive towers to combat Muslim pirates, the Ripa Grande (depicted on Antonio Tempesta's map of Rome, seen above) had emerged as one of Rome's premiere ports. Strategically located on the west bank of the Tiber River in Trastevere and tapping into the Mediterranean trade network, over the next three centuries the Ripa Grande grew into one of Rome's foremost commercial centers. As a consequence, the port revitalized the city's naval trade, which had waned after the abandonment of the ancient Marmorata port across the river during the 5th and 6th centuries. The port's principal imports included Greek and Spanish wine, grain, and oil, but rice, sugar, and luxury goods also passed through the port. From there, the commodities flooded into Trasteverine markets, as well as other marketplaces across the Tiber, such as the ancient Foro Boario near the Capitoline area of Rome.

Ripa Grande also played a central role in Christian pilgrimage routes to Rome in the medieval period. Travelling up the Tiber River from the port in Fiumicino, pilgrims poured into the Ripa Grande and, most likely, travelled along Via Lungaretta to visit Rome's sacred spaces. Overtime, and particularly during Jubilee years, the influx of pilgrims transformed the Ripa Grande from a lively urban neighborhood into a hectic hub of religious and commercial activity. For this reason, the Ripa Grande was appropriately nicknamed the "Pilgrim's bank."

Today, unfortunately, nothing remains of this important medieval site. The embankment project in 1880 led to the demolition of the port's ships, docks, and infrastructure. Nonetheless, key locations in the port's history remain intact. The Marmorata Port, for instance, has been remarkably well preserved on the left bank after its excavation in the late 19th century. Additionally, constructed into the Aurelian wall during the ancient period and frequently used during the medieval period, the Porta Portese on Via Portuense still stands. Most importantly, we may walk along the steps in front of the Institute of San Michele complex on Porto di Ripa Grande and imagine the galleys and rowboats that populated the Tiber River and this flourishing harbor, serving as an important reminder of this port's location and medieval past.

]]> Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Hong Kong: Princeton University Press.

"Ponte Sublicio." Informational panel, intersection at Via Marmorata and Lungotevere Testaccio, by MP Mirabilia.

Robbins, Deborah King. "A case study of medieval urban process: Rome's Trastevere (1250-1450)." Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1989.

Tempesta, Antonio. Plan of the City of Rome. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1645.

]]> Santa Maria in Aracoeli is a basilica that sits at the top of the Capitoline Hill at the site where the Tiburtine Sybil was said to have announced the coming of Christ. The Mirabilia Urbis Romae, a 12th-century guidebook to Roman monuments, claims that it was built on the foundations of the ancient Temple of Juno. Today, however, what remains is the structure that was built in the 8th century, and then rebuilt in the 12th century, as the monastery and church of S. Maria in Capitolio.

Approaching the building from the west, visitors begin at the base of 124 steps leading up the hill to the church. In the medieval period, a public market was held in front of S. Maria on the uneven expanse of the hill, cascading down into the piazza below, today known as Piazza Aracoeli. The steps had not yet been built during the 12th century, but one can imagine the crowded market sprawling down the hill where the steps exist today. Although there were medieval steps leading up the east side of the hill to S. Maria from the forum, this market ensured that the main entrance to the church was largely from the west, the primary entrance used by visitors today. Arriving at the top of the steps, take a moment to walk around the top of the Capitoline hill, as it provides one of the best panoramic views of Rome.

]]>
Benedict. Mirabilia Urbis Romae. Translated and Edited by Francis Morgan Nicholas. New York: Italica Press, 1986.

Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.]]> çade, which features multiple Romanesque statues, arches and columns. The Villa was clearly more of an urban palace than a garden villa prior to 1576, as Ferdinando undertook a sizable development project with the aim of more fully integrating the Villa into nature. He enlisted the help of his old friend Bartolomeo Ammanati, who drew inspiration from the contemporary gardens at the Villa d'Este to guide the additions to the Villa Medici. The additions amounted to “the distinctive attic and twin towers, the gallery wing, the Serlian loggia, the elevated appartamento nobile, and the decorated [back] facade” (Andres, 282).

What Ferdinando de' Medici achieved through his additions to the Villa were profound aesthetic changes which, in the words of Glenn Andres, “converted a fairly conservative and static mid-century suburban villa into a striking new statement in massing and unity...In short, Ferdinando de' Medici got maximum effect for his minimal effort, radically altering the appearance of the villa and thrusting it to the forefront of contemporary design” (Andres, 283).]]> Though it is now the home of an expansive museum of art as one of the branches of the National Roman Museum, the Palazzo Altemps has a long history of noble occupation. From the time of the ancient Romans the site was one of the largest marble warehouses in the ancient city, just 160 meters up the Tiber from the Ponte Elio, one of the two marble ports of Rome. You can see part of the excavations today in one of the museum’s wings.

In 1477, during a period of urbanization on the Campus Martius, Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, began construction of what would become the Palazzo Altemps. Due to their relation to the Pope, the Riario family had significant influence over politics in Rome, and during Sixtus' papacy the Riario family built on a massive scale, with projects including the Cancelleria and Palazzo Corsini.

Following the initial construction of the Palazzo Altemps, Cardinal Francesco Soderini purchased the palace in 1511. During his residency he renovated the palace. However his renovations did not last the rest of the century. Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps, who lends his name to the palace today, purchased the palace in 1568 to house his expansive art collection. Among his art collection include mostly statues in the classical vein. Upon his purchase he commissioned an extreme makeover of the palace, covering the courtyard, the church of Ancietus, and the loggia as they appear today. While Sittico’s collection is featured in some place in some places, the Boncampagni Ludiovisi and Egyptian collections are far more prominent within the museum, both of which are extremely classical in their aesthetics and history.

]]> Lalupa. Roma, Palazzo Altemps: Cortile Maggiore, photo, March 2, 2007. http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Altemps#/media/File:Palazzo_Altemps_-_cortile_1010531.JPG

"National Roman Museum: The Palazzo Altemps." Soprintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo, il MNR, e l'Area Archaeologica di Roma. Date Accessed June 3, 2015. http://archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/museums/national-roman-museum-palazzo-altemps

"Palazzo Altemps." Tiscali. Date Accessed May 31, 2015. http://web.tiscali.it/romaonlineguide/Pages/eng/rbarocca/sBHy15.htm

"Palazzo Altemps." Rome Guide. Date Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.romeguide.it/ALTEMPS/palazzoaltemps.htm

"Palazzo Altemps: Museo Nazionale Romano." A View on Cities. Date Accessed May 31, 2015. http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/palazzoaltemps.htm

]]> The Torre Sanguigna is a medieval tower on a corner north of the Piazza Navona. Despite the large number of towers, territory markers of noble families, that once filled Rome, it is today (in Krautheimer’s words) one of the “ill-documented and few” towers that still survive from the inhabited city center of the Middle Ages. An article on medieval masonry is one of the few English-language articles to mention it, and this source as well mentions little more about it than its proximity to the Piazza Navona. It does, however, provide a date for the construction of the Torre Sanguigna: the alternating rows of brickwork and small bricks of tufa (a local stone) visible on its lower section suggest a twelfth or thirteenth century date of construction.

In discussing the surviving medieval towers of Rome, Krautheimer bemoans the separation of some from the fabric of the city and their treatment as museum pieces, but the Torre Sanguigna is an exception. It is still integrated into its block of buildings, even if the fortified house—domus—that would have originally been connected to it and housed the noble family that built it is no longer standing or at least visible. Despite the great changes to the city since the Middle Ages, including the widening of the streets and the greater height of the surrounding buildings, the Torre Sanguigna as currently situated provides a view of the original place of the tower as part of a larger building complex. Antonio Tempesta’s seventeenth century map of Rome provides a perspective of the tower midway between its construction and the present day, and it is depicted, then as now, as part of the surrounding city block.

]]> Barclay Lloyd, J. E. “Masonry Techniques in Medieval Rome.” Papers of the British School at Rome 53 (1985): 225-277.

Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312 - 1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Tempesta, Antonio. Plan of the City of Rome. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1645.

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The name "of the militia" which was applied to the tower and to its immediate area recalls the site's use as a base for Byzantine troops under the Late Roman Emperor Tiberius I Constantine (578-582CE).

.An earthquake destroyed the top floors in 1349, reducing the tower's height to 50m (165 ft). The tower was part of a larger fortress complex on that stood on the boundary between the medieval city center and Rome’s disabitato or "uninhabited" area: it loomed over the city’s visitors as they entered the built up part of the city.

Defensive towers were a statement of family power and wealth during the medieval period. In the hands of the Frangipani family in the 12th century, the tower was controlled by the Annibaldi family in the mid thirteenth century, and later by the Caetani and Conti families.

The Torre delle Milizie is one of the most imposing medieval structures in Rome and is a recognizable landmark from many viewpoints. The tower is also a good reminder that there would have been fortified structures like these scattered throughout the medieval city.]]> Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Packer, James E. "Report from Rome: The Imperial Fora, a Retrospective." American Journal of Archaeology 101, no. 2 (1997): 307-30. Accessed May 17, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/506512.]]>
A member of the Conti family, Pope Innocent III built the tower as a way to commemorate them. However, the tower represented another sort of conflict. Scholars have said that Innocent III took money illicitly from the church and gave it to his brother to build the tower. This controversy has led some to believe that the Ospedale di Santo Spirito was built as a way for Innocent to atone for his sin.

After an earthquake in the mid-fourteenth century, part of the tower was destroyed. Over time, the tower has undergone more weathering and destruction. However, the remaining base still stands tall among the modern city of Rome. With its own road (Via Torre dei Conti), the legacy of this tower certainly remains prominent across the city’s history.]]>
Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks, trans. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.]]>
Hundreds of towers changed and dominated the skyline of Rome in the Middle Ages due to the rise to power of new Roman noble families. Towers were never originally isolated like we see them today; they were always part of a larger complex, which were owned by the great Roman families, and they were a means by which the families could defend their land.

One such family, the Pierleoni, fortified Tiber Island in the 11th century and in doing so, held a tower there which overlooked and commanded the Ponte Fabricio (also called the Ponte dei Quattro Capi), one of the only two bridges that crossed over the Tiber before the 15th century. Since the Tiber Island was desirable land due to its hard to reach location, the tower and the fortress were used defensively as much as they were a symbol of the Pierleoni family’s power.

The fortified mansion at one point also provided protection for Pope Urban II in 1088 while the anti-pope governed the Vatican. The tower later became known as the Torre dei Caetani, since the fortress fell to the Caetani family, the family of Pope Boniface VIII, by around 1300. Eventually, the Caetani family left the site due to flooding. Today only the tower and part of the mansion remain of the medieval complex.]]> Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.]]>