Spina di Borgo, the lost neighborhood of Rome

Power plays, revolutions, wars, and just the need for modernization. All of these are factors in the changing shape of Rome: what you now can appreciate in its current layering (Imperial-meets-Medieval-meets-Renaissance-meets-Rationalism… and so on and so forth) once looked very different, and hard decisions had to be made that brought about the destruction, plain and simple, of entire neighborhoods.

Sacrificed for the greater good

The Alessandrino district, for instance, was erased to bring to light the Forum (and the Via dei Fori Imperiali boulevard that connects Piazza Venezia with the Colosseum); “Consolazione” was a borough at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, torn apart to build Via Luigi Petroselli or Via del Teatro di Marcello.

In this specific post, however, we want to tell the story of a very different neighborhood, one that survived the Sack of Rome, the 1800s, and almost escaped untouched from Mussolini’s passion for monumental roads and buildings: we now call this “Borgo,” but it was known as Spina di Borgo, the literal village around St. Peter’s Basilica.

The long-lost district around the Vatican

It’s safe to say that almost everyone reading this blog knows that St. Peter’s Basilica didn’t always look like it does today, nor did it have Via della Conciliazione as the wide boulevard leading to the square there. While the church looked very much like Santa Maria in Trastevere, like we explained in this post, the view for ancient visitors was akin to that awaiting those who make their way to Orvieto: winding alleys that dramatically open to a view of the basilica’s façade.

Indeed, a maze of alleys surrounded St. Peter’s, and numerous smaller squares housed the magnificent palazzos of cardinals and aristocrats who needed to be as close as possible to the Vatican. A number of smaller churches also dotted the district. Raphael himself used to live in the area and designed one of the most famous buildings here, Palazzo Branconio dell’Aquila, which was also demolished, albeit in the 1700s.

For the most part, though, very ordinary people used to live around the basilica: from the masons and their descendents who worked on the rebuilding of St. Peter’s to the sellers of religious goods and bookbinders, cobblers and tailors, and so on and so forth—people whose economies depended on the pope(s). Imagine, if you can, a bustling area not different from what Trastevere looks like today.

Why did Spina di Borgo have to be demolished?

The reason why today’s Borgo looks very much different today is, first and foremost, political. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 was an attempt at settling the long-standing issue of having the Pope as a head of state within a sovereign Italy, and forgive us for trying to explain this in just a couple of lines rather than entire paragraphs. It was decided that the Pope would only act as such in Vatican City, and the world’s smallest country would receive reparations for territories annexed by Italy.

Via della Conciliazione was the media-friendly way, as we would say today, to seal the deal and became the symbol of the Holy See and Italy’s constant communication. Ironically enough, “conciliazione” can mean “peace,” but also “settlement.”

Of course, the real victims of this decision were the regular residents of the ancient alleys around St. Peter’s. Their houses were destroyed, and they were displaced, for the most part ending up outside of Rome, because in the project for the new and improved Borgo, the buildings around the Spina were re-imagined as offices (and they still are to this day).

What’s in a name? The “spina” in the middle of the borough

Many of you know that the spina is the divider running along any ancient Roman circus (yes, like the one still visible today in the middle of the Circus Maximus). The ancient Borgo (note how this word sounds and looks like “borough”!) was comprised of mainly three areas: Borgo Nuovo, Borgo Pio (which was relatively untouched by the demolitions), and Spina, indeed, lying between those two and looking absolutely like… a circus divider. Borgo Nuovo and Spina were completely destroyed.

What part of the Borgo is still standing today?

As mentioned, Borgo Pio, standing right outside the Vatican Walls, largely looks like it did when Pius IV decided to expand the borough in the aftermath of the Sack of Rome.

On Via della Conciliazione itself, the boulevard route was slightly tweaked to incorporate Palazzo dei Penitenzieri and Palazzo Torlonia, so they’re the oldest buildings on that road. The church of Santa Maria in Traspontina was also spared. Other older-looking buildings in the immediate Conciliazione area are actually “fakes,” as they are façade-only – the only thing that was spared.

What to see in Borgo Pio

We know, it’s a little confusing, but Borgo Pio is both the name of the district and that of the main street in it (you’ve also got Borgo Vittorio and Borgo Angelico). If you’re taking a walk here, you’ll want to stop at the corner of Borgo Pio and Via del Campanile, where a round-shaped engraving on the stone is what remains of a suggestive story about how bakers in ancient times had to stick to that shape to sell their bread at a fair price: neither smaller nor larger than that!

Look for Domenico Fontana’s house on Vicolo delle Palline—the celebrated architect, who famously reworked the Scala Sancta in Rome and made the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano look like it does today, lived here.

Again on Borgo Pio, the Acqua Marcia fountain is one of the city’s oldest still working today and looks like an ancient Roman shrine. Another famous, and as small, fountain is on Piazza del Colonnato: the Fontana delle Tiare fountain is a symbol of this hamlet-like area, and it depicts three papal crowns and St. Peter’s keys, with water falling into shell-like basins to remind the faithful of resurrection and eternal life.

Of course, you won’t find many major attractions when you have the Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s itself, and Castel Sant’Angelo at your fingertips, but as you walk through the area, don’t forget to look up at the Passetto, the corridor on top of the Vatican walls that served as an escape route for many a Pope. It is occasionally opened to the public, so who knows? You might be among the lucky few to walk on it next!