The story of Via dei Coronari: from ancient Rome to modern times

If you were to stop a hundred tourists in Piazza Navona and ask them what’s down the little street just north of it, maybe five will know its name. And yet Via dei Coronari is, quietly, one of the most important streets in Rome’s entire history and has been carrying people, money, prayers, and gossip through the city for over two thousand years. It just never bothered to get famous about it. For some of us visiting Rome for the first time (or the second, or the third…) this blog post may be an overdue introduction of sorts.

From ancient road to pilgrim highway

Via dei Coronari began life in Roman times as a straight, no-nonsense thoroughfare — so straight, in fact, that in the Middle Ages it was simply called Via Recta, “the Straight Street”. As simple as that! It ran from what’s now Via del Corso down to reach the bridge at what is now Ponte Sant’Angelo. It also passed right by the ancient Stadium of Domitian, the athletics arena whose oval footprint you’re actually standing inside every time you visit Piazza Navona. 

By the Middle Ages, this direct route to the Vatican made the street a pilgrim superhighway, and pilgrims need souvenirs. Vendors of rosaries — which used to be called corone — set up shop all along it, which is exactly where the street’s current name comes from – the Coronari being the sellers of rosaries.

The tragedy that struck pilgrims

During the Jubilee of 1450, the pilgrims headed to the Vatican and converging on the bridge were hit by a terrible tragedy. A mule, startled by the crush of the crowd  panicked and bolted. The resulting stampede put so much pressure on the bridge’s parapets that they simply gave way. Somewhere between 170 and 200 pilgrims were crushed or thrown into the Tiber and drowned. It remains one of the deadliest crowd disasters in Rome’s history, and it happened at the exact bottleneck that Via dei Coronari had been funneling people toward for over a millennium.

Pope Nicholas V, understandably shaken, had two small chapels built on the bridge afterward — dedicated to the victims — and later popes widened the surrounding streets and squares specifically to prevent it from happening again. So next time you’re strolling down Via dei Coronari toward the river, comfortably unhurried, spare a thought for just how much easier that walk is today than it was for the pilgrims who came before you.

The ladies who made the street famous (for other reasons)

Fast forward to the Renaissance, and Via dei Coronari had developed a second reputation. This was prime real estate for Rome’s most celebrated courtesans — high-society companions who were less “back alley” and more “invited to dinner with cardinals.” The most famous, Fiammetta Michaelis, lived in a palazzetto still standing today, and was reportedly the lover of Cesare Borgia, a man whose family basically wrote the manual on Renaissance scandal. Her contemporary Imperia was celebrated in poetry and portraiture, proof that in Rome, even reputation could be a career.

Meanwhile, more legitimate business was booming too: the street was split into two working districts, Scorticlaria, home to leather tanners, and Immagine di Ponte, named for a sacred shrine (read on!). Nearby streets like Via dei Banchi Vecchi and Via dei Banchi Nuovi still remember the moneylenders who set up their banchi — banking counters — in the neighborhood. Sinners and bankers, side by side. Rome has never been picky about neighbors.

The Oldest Madonnella in Rome

Look up as you walk — literally — and you’ll spot one of Via dei Coronari’s quieter treasures: its street shrines, or Madonnelle (we wrote about them here), small devotional images tucked into corners, originally meant to watch over passersby (and, conveniently, discourage anyone from using that corner as a bathroom — a surprisingly common medieval urban planning trick!).

The most historically significant is right on this street: the Immagine di Ponte, created in 1523 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, widely considered the oldest sacred street tabernacle in Rome.

Via dei Coronari today: fun and chic

Today Via dei Coronari is primarily known for its antique shops, their windows crammed with old lamps, paintings, and furniture, sometimes several centuries old. Do not be fooled, though: beyond the luxury, this street is also a nightlife destination thanks to its bars, informal eateries and crowds, a mix of locals and international visitors hanging out on the cobbled stretch most nights. Check it out!

Looking to stay in Via dei Coronari?

If the open-air museum that is Via dei Coronari fascinates you, you’re in luck! At From Home to Rome, we manage a few properties right on the street, or minutes from it. Interested? Look them up on our portfolio page!