Palestrina in Latio

23 January 2025 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Museo archeologico nazionale di Palestrina in Palazzo Barberini © Acquario51/cc-by-sa-4.0

Museo archeologico nazionale di Palestrina in Palazzo Barberini © Acquario51/cc-by-sa-4.0

Palestrina (ancient: Praeneste; Ancient Greek: Prainestos) is a modern Italian city and comune (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon the ruins of the ancient city of Praeneste. Palestrina is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Thomas Mann spent some time there in 1895 and, two years later, during the long harsh summer of 1897, he stayed over again, with his brother Heinrich Mann, in a sojourn that provided the backdrop, nearly half a century later, for Adrian Leverkühn’s pact with the Devil in Mann’s novel Doktor Faustus.   read more…

Sapienza University of Rome

4 June 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  6 minutes

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, the former University Chapel © Paris Orlando/cc-by-sa-4.0

Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, the former University Chapel © Paris Orlando/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Sapienza University of Rome (Italian: Sapienza – Università di Roma), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”, abbreviated simply as Sapienza (“wisdom”), is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the world’s oldest universities, and with 122,000 students, it is the largest university in Europe. Due to its size, funding, and numerous laboratories and libraries, Sapienza is a major education and research centre in Southern Europe. The university is located mainly in the Città Universitaria (University city), which covers 44 ha (110 acres) near the Tiburtina Station, with different campuses, libraries and laboratories in various locations in Rome.   read more…

Cathedra

11 February 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Cathdra Petri_at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican © Ricardo André Frantz/cc-by-sa-3.0

Cathedra Petri at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican © Ricardo André Frantz/cc-by-sa-3.0

A cathedra is the raised throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop’s throne. With time, the related term cathedral became synonymous with the “seat”, or principal church, of a bishopric. The word in modern languages derives from a normal Greek word kathédra, meaning “seat”, with no special religious connotations, and the Latin cathedra, specifically a chair with arms. It is a symbol of the bishop’s teaching authority in the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion churches.   read more…

Great Synagogue of Rome

14 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Fczarnowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Fczarnowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Great Synagogue of Rome (Italian: Tempio Maggiore di Roma) is the largest synagogue in Rome. The Jewish community of Rome goes back to the 2nd century B.C when the Roman Republic had an alliance of sorts with Judea under the leadership of Judah Maccabeus. At that time, many Jews came to Rome from Judea. Their numbers increased during the following centuries due to the settlement that came with Mediterranean trade. Then large numbers of Jews were brought to Rome as slaves following the Jewish–Roman wars in Judea from 63 to 135 CE.   read more…

Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome

10 June 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com - Rodney/cc-by-sa-2.0

Column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com – Rodney/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Column of Marcus Aurelius (Latin: Columna Centenaria Divorum Marci et Faustinae, Italian: Colonna di Marco Aurelio) is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modeled on Trajan’s Column.   read more…

Ghetto of Rome

6 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  15 minutes

Great Synagogue of Rome © Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

Great Synagogue of Rome © Livioandronico2013/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Roman Ghetto or Ghetto of Rome (Italian: Ghetto di Roma) was a Jewish ghetto established in 1555 in the Rione Sant’Angelo, in Rome, Italy, in the area surrounded by present-day Via del Portico d’Ottavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto, close to the River Tiber and the Theatre of Marcellus. With the exception of brief periods under Napoleon from 1808 to 1815 and under the Roman Republics of 1798–99 and 1849, the ghetto of Rome was controlled by the papacy until the capture of Rome in 1870.   read more…

Chigi Palace in Rome

7 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  8 minutes

Chigi Palace and column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com - jimmyweee/cc-by-2.0

Chigi Palace and column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com – jimmyweee/cc-by-2.0

The Chigi Palace (Italian: Palazzo Chigi) is a palace and former noble residence in Rome which is the seat of the Council of Ministers and the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy. Since 13 February 2021, the tenant of the Chigi Palace has been Prime Minister Mario Draghi. It is located in the Piazza Colonna, next to Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the Chamber of Deputies.   read more…

Palazzo Madama in Rome

15 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Fratello.Gracco/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Fratello.Gracco/cc-by-sa-4.0

Palazzo Madama in Rome is the seat of the Senate of the Italian Republic, the upper house of the Italian Parliament. After the extinction of the Medici in 1743, the palace was handed over to the House of Lorraine and, later, to Pope Benedict XIV, who made it the seat of the Papal Government. In 1849, Pius IX moved here the Ministries of Finances and of the Public Debt, as well as the Papal Post Offices. In 1871, after the conquest of Rome by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, the palazzo became the seat of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy.   read more…

Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome

12 August 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  8 minutes

Chamber of Deputies © Quirinale.it

Chamber of Deputies © Quirinale.it

The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The palace’s name derives from the slight hill on which it is built, which was claimed to be the Mons Citatorius, the hill created in the process of clearing the Campus Martius in Roman times.   read more…

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