Last of all we turn to Rome—a town which is in certain respects unique but which
nonetheless follows the general pattern of our capital cities in many ways.1 The early
building history of the town can be given only in the briefest outline here. The residential
areas in ancient Rome were mainly on the hills, while almost all the large public
buildings were located at the foot of the hills or between them. During the Middle Ages,
when the city lived on as the centre of the Catholic Church and the most frequented place
of pilgrimage in the West, the situation was pretty much the opposite: dwellings were
mainly concentrated to the low-lying Campus Martius, while several important churches
rose on the hills. It was the prominence of Rome as a place of pilgrimage, with the tombs
of the apostles and martyrs and the other traditional holy sites, that lay behind the vast
urban planning enterprises of the sixteenth century and, in particular of Sixtus V’s
pontificate (1585–90). It was now that the thoroughfares linking the major pilgrim
churches and other important buildings were laid out: under Pius IV (1559–65) the Via
Pia between Monte Cavallo and Porta Pia, under Gregory XIII (1572–85) the start of Via
Merulana between the Lateran Palace and S. Maria Maggiore, and under Sixtus V the
completion of this street and the construction of Via Panisperna and Via Sistina running
from S. Maria Maggiore to Piazza Venezia and Trinità dei Monti respectively and from
S. Maria Maggiore to S. Croce in Gerusalemme (cf. pp. 24 f). To begin with, however,
these were little more than connecting links, but they were envisaged as rectilinear
streets, and those who chose to build houses along them were given special privileges.
The grand innovative architectural schemes, which were subsequently studied throughout
Europe, involved the insertion of monumental accents into the urban structure. These
included the Campidoglio (figure 2.10), Piazza del Popolo with its three radiating streets,
Piazza di S. Pietro and the Spanish Steps. During the Napoleonic era far-reaching plans
were forged for the restoration and embellishment of the town, but most of them
remained on the drawing board.2
By the middle of the nineteenth century Rome had still been barely affected by the
kind of changes which were taking place in many other capital cities. As the centre of the
Catholic Church, by far the most international organization in existence, and by virtue of
its history and its monuments, the town enjoyed a kind of worldwide status. At the same
time, as the chief city in the fairly highly centralized Papal States, it was also one of
several Italian capital cities. In 1850 its population was about 175,000—not perhaps a
very impressive figure compared with London and Paris, but still a considerable number
for the time. Building was still concentrated to the Campus Martius and Trastevere. Of
the area within the Aurelian Wall, built in the third century AD, only about one-third was
at all densely built.
In the course of the nineteenth century, as the era of the Papal States was drawing to a
close, evidence of the new times gradually