Carlitos Lunghi Site

                      Domician between years 81-96, was first in being made carve a obelisk to
                  erect it in its capital.
                  He ordered his stature  and  extraction  of  the  quarries  of Aswan and its
                  erection in front  f the temple  of the  Iseo that had made construct in the
                  Mars Fields. In recorded  hieroglyphic  texts in his four faces it was made
                  name with the titles of the pharaoh.
                  It is not known where it was located  originally, nevertheless in 4 century,
                  Maximo I place it in the circus in memory  of  its Romulo son, in  the Via
                  Apia, near the tomb of Cecilia Metella.
                  The obelisck of  Domician  of  17.60 meters, was  found  broken  in  five
                  fragments in the circus of Romulo by  Poggio, Mercati  suggested  to  the
                  Pope Sixto V to re-erected before the basilic of St. Sebastian.
                  But was under the Pope Innocent X (Pamphilj),  in  1654  who  order  to
                  Bernini its restoration and erection in the square of Navona,  or " Agonale
                  Circus " where it is now.
                  Some fragment not be founded first, that is the reason that was be replace,
                  that  fragment  was  founded  after  and  now  there  are  in  the  Egyptian
                  Vatican Museum.
                  The circus was ocupated by 30.000  spectator. The  stadium  have  three
                  magnificent fountains. In  the  fountain  of   the  center  was  erected  the
                  obelisk, is the fountain to The Four Rivers of Bernini, decorated  by  four
                  allegorical  figures  representing major rivers from the four  regions of the
                  world known by those times: the Danube (Europe), the Nile (Africa),  the
                  Ganges (Asia) and the Rio de la Plata (America).
                  In  front  of  it  stay  the  church  of  Saint Agnese in Agone, whose cons-
                  truction, begun in those same years by Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi,  was
                  finished by Borromini; using his  most  interesting  style, he  designed  the
                  facade of the church curved inwards so that the dome would have looked
                  from  the  square  much  more   advanced   than  its  actual  position, and
                  therefore more visible, as a perspective effect.
                  Bernini mocked  his  rival  by  having  one of the two  figures  facing  the
                  church, the Rio de la Plata, with one  hand  raised  as  if  protecting  itself
                  from the building likely to fall; this of course is only a legend.
                  Borromini's followers indeed criticized the fountain and said that it would
                  collapse (actually, the fountain's central part is hollow); therefore Bernini,
                  during one night,  had  four  thin  strings  tied  to  the  obelisk  as a mock
                  protection, to tease his rivals once more.

TM & © 1996-2003 carliar