The Legend of Bernini and Borromini
Among all the legends surrounding Piazza Navona, the most famous concerns the rivalry between Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini.
The story goes that the figure of the Rio de la Plata, in the Fountain of the Four Rivers, raises its arm as if to protect itself from the collapse of the façade of Sant'Agnese in Agone — designed by Borromini. Bernini supposedly intended this gesture to suggest that his rival's church was about to fall.
The story is fascinating. It is also historically impossible.
The Fountain of the Four Rivers was inaugurated on 12 June 1651. Borromini did not begin work on the façade of Sant'Agnese until 1652–1653. Bernini could not have mocked a building that did not yet exist.
The gesture of the Rio de la Plata has, in reality, a more prosaic explanation: the river raises its arm because the Rio de la Plata represented, in the seventeenth century, the frontier of the then-known western world — a gesture of openness towards the unknown, not of mockery. The legend has nevertheless survived the centuries and become one of the quality tests for Roman tourist guides: anyone who recounts it as true has not done their homework.
The Nile that Covers its Face
Similar in mechanism but different in origin is the legend of the river god Nile. His head is wrapped in a drape: according to the Romantic legend, he covers his face to avoid looking at the façade of Sant'Agnese.
The historical explanation is this: the source of the Nile was unknown in 1651 — Europeans did not discover it until the nineteenth century. Bernini represented the Nile with a veiled head to symbolise geographical incognita, not to mock the neighbour. The drape is a cartographic symbol, not a gesture of derision.
Olimpia Maidalchini, the "Pimpaccia di Piazza Navona"
The Palazzo Pamphilj that closes the western side of the square was home to Olimpia Maidalchini (1592–1657), sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X and one of the most controversial figures in seventeenth-century Rome.
A woman of extraordinary intelligence and governing ability, Olimpia exercised real influence over pontifical decisions — a circumstance intolerable to her adversaries, who defamed her by every means. The popular nickname "Pimpaccia di Piazza Navona" encapsulated the misogynistic contempt for a woman who had dared to act like the men of her class.
The most cited episode: at the death of Innocent X in 1655, it is said that Olimpia refused to contribute to the funeral expenses. The pontiff's body lay abandoned for days before receiving a fitting burial. True or exaggerated, the story crystallised the image of a ruthless woman.
Her figure has been reassessed by contemporary historiography, which sees in her an exceptional protagonist in an era that did not admit women to power.
The Legend of Saint Agnes
The church of Sant'Agnese in Agone stands on the site where, according to tradition, the martyrdom of Agnes of Rome took place around 304 AD.
The legend recounts that the young Christian woman, having refused marriage to a Roman magistrate, was brought to Domitian's stadium and publicly stripped of her clothes as punishment. Miraculously, her hair instantly grew back to cover her. The prefect then ordered her thrown into the fire, but the flames parted around her without touching her. She was finally beheaded.
The name "Agnes" derives from the Greek hagnè (pure), but the Roman people associated it with the lamb — agnus — symbol of purity and sacrifice. In iconography, Agnes is almost always depicted with a lamb.
The Obelisk and the Circus of Maxentius
The obelisk at the centre of the Fountain of the Four Rivers is not Egyptian: it is Roman, made by Roman craftsmen in the third century AD in imitation of Egyptian obelisks, as an ornament for the circus built by Emperor Maxentius on the Via Appia.
Bernini obtained permission from Innocent X to move it to the square and use it as the focal point of the fountain — a gesture of symbolic appropriation of the ancient past in the service of pontifical magnificence.
The Shape of the Square
The length of Piazza Navona — approximately 276 metres — corresponds almost exactly to the length of the track of the underlying Stadium of Domitian. The current width (approximately 54 metres) reflects that of the original cavea. Anyone standing at the centre of the square is, without knowing it, standing on the track of a two-thousand-year-old racetrack.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is the rivalry between Bernini and Borromini real? The two were genuine rivals, but the legend of the Rio de la Plata gesture is false: the fountain was inaugurated in 1651, a year before Borromini began work on the façade of Sant'Agnese.
Why does the river god Nile cover his head? To symbolise that the source of the Nile was geographically unknown at the time of Bernini — not to hide from the church opposite.
Who was Olimpia Maidalchini? The sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X, known as "Pimpaccia di Piazza Navona." A woman of great political ability, she was demonised by contemporaries and reassessed by modern historiography.
Article no. 158 — TIER S — MON-08 Piazza Navona Type: HISTORICAL Words: ~800