For those who come from Rome, via della Conciliazione represents first of all the monumental access to the Vatican Basilica.
In reality it is the result of a deep wound open in the heart of the city less than a century ago, when the Fascist regime decided to celebrate with its opening the signature of the Lateran Pacts.
Realizing the construction of this avenue required Mussolini using what he dubbed his “restorative pickaxes” to breaking down the so/called Spina di Borgo, a set of buildings between Borgo Vecchio and Via Alessandrina, leading to the irretrievable destruction of historic buildings and churches, squares and fountains, and leaving the surviving remnants bereft and diminished.
Those remnants will be our starting point, as we reconstruct the appearance of one of the most authentic and richly historic corners of the city: from Piazza Ponte Sant’Angelo, a famous site of executions, we will cross the bridge leading to Castel Sant’Angelo and, like the pilgrims of times past, walk toward St. Peter’s Basilica through Via della Conciliazione.
We will stop to admire what remains as testimony of a past that is forever lost: from the complex of Santo Spirito in Sassia to the Oratorio dell’Annunziatina, from Santa Maria in Trasportina to San Lorenzo in Piscibus we will walk through the old dwellings of ancient nobles families for ending in St Peter’s Square, wrapped from a big hug drawn by the square designed by Bernini.
