The heart of the area is Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, nestled in the beautiful accommodation seventeenth century. The fountain at the center, the octagonal basin, is the work of Carlo Fontana.
Santa Maria in Trastevere was the first church in Rome to be dedicated to the Madonna, perhaps the first open for worship, certainly one of the oldest in the city.
It was founded by Pope Callistus I on Taberna Meritoria, exploiting the legend according to which, in 38. C., miraculously, the oil gushed in that place and came to the Tiber, announcing the coming birth of Jesus (today it would be a miracle indeed valuable, because, probably, it was oil!). The church was born on the place where the oil gushed, still listed in one of the steps of the chancel.
To give shape to Basilica was Pope Julius I in the fourth century, in the ninth century Pope Gregory IV, under the looming danger of the Saracens arrived on the Tyrrhenian coast, extended upheld because the bodies of saints rescued from the catacombs.
The Basilica was rebuilt in the twelfth century by Pope Innocent II reusing materials from the Baths of Caracalla. New changes affected the church between 1500 and 1700 and one of these interventions Carlo Fontana, who created the porch and changed the facade. Not much remains of the most ancient phases: a strip of the floor of the third century and the bell tower of which peeps un'edicoletta in 1600 depicting the Madonna and Child made of mosaic.
Three times during the Holy Years, Santa Maria in Trastevere replaced the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls: twice due to the epidemics that broke out in the Roman countryside and the last time in 1825, after a fire had almost completely destroyed St. Paul.
In the backdrop of the square, on the right side of the Basilica joins the House of the Canons, and on the left is the Palace of San Callisto: he was once a Benedictine monastery attached to the church, can be seen today in the seventeenth century facade restored in 1800 and in 1900 . On the same side is the palace of the Knights (or Leopardi), with the characteristic ashlar and the Baroque portal.
The square, as the entire neighborhood has become a point of reference for nightlife of the Romans, tourists and a meeting place regardless of age or nationality. Trastevere offers endless entertainment possibilities: from the opportunity, in the summer, to 'camp out' under the stars with a cool drink and a guitar, the idea of ??a dinner in a gourmet restaurant or in a historic pizzeria, the shopping opportunities in small shops delicious!
