Piazza della Minerva

Located behind thePantheon, the elegant square is overlooked by theBasilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, whose origins, according to tradition, date back to the 8th century. On the solemn façade, some tombstones recall the flooding of theTiber from 1598 to 1870. The interior,a rare example of Gothic art in Rome, keeps splendid works of art, such as the frescoes byFilippino Lippi, theChrist the Redeemer byMichelangelo, theAnnunciation byAntoniazzo Romano, and the remains ofSanta Caterina da Siena and the great Dominican painterBeato Angelico.

To the left of the Basilica stands thePalazzina della Minerva, an architectural jewel built in the second half of the 16th century on the commission ofVincenzo Giustiniani, general of the Dominican order. The building was a barracks for the French troops, following the events of the Roman Republic; later, it became the seat of the Pontifical Latin American College, renovated by the architectAndrea Busiri Vici senior in 1866-67. Since 2003, it has housed theSenate Library, named after Giovanni Spadolini. It keepsabout 70,000 volumes,3,000 periodicals,600 Italian and foreign newspapers, the most relevant collection ofStatutes of Municipalitiesand corporations from the late Middle Ages to contemporary,ancient editions of common and canon law, and one of the richestcollections of 19th-century periodicals.

Both buildings were part of an articulated former Dominican complex, the Insula Sapientiae, built on a large area formerly occupied by thetemplesdedicated to Isis, Serapis and Minerva and today also housing theCasanatenseLibraryand theLibrary of the Chamber of Deputies.

On the other side of the square, opposite the basilica, is the refined facade of the 16th-centuryPalazzo Severoli. Built forMario Petruschi, conservator at the Capitol, it was later bought byMarcantonio Colonna and then by theSeveroli from Faenza, the family from which it takes its name. In 1706, the building became the property ofPope Clement XI to become the seat of the Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles. Today, it is still the seat of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the institution founded in Rome in 1701 for training the priests to serve in the Holy See diplomatic corps.

At the centre of the square stands the smallEgyptian obelisk of the 6th century BC, in red granite, about five and a half meters high, initially located near theIseo Campense. It was accidentally unearthed in 1665 by some Dominican friars in the garden of their church. On behalf of Pope Alexander VII,Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the original base with theelephant, sculpted byErcole Ferrata (1667).
At the request of the Dominicans, astone cube was inserted under the belly of the animal as a support, giving the statue a rather stout look and the nickname"Porcino della Minerva", i.e. Minerva’s Piglet, which later became the dialect“Purcino”and therefore“Pulcino della Minerva”.