Quirinal Hill

The Quirinal Hill (

According to Roman legend, the Quirinal Hill was the site of a small village of the Sabines, and king Titus Tatius would have lived there after the peace between Romans and Sabines. These Sabines had erected altars in the honour of their god Quirinus (naming the hill by this god).^{[citation needed]}

Tombs from the 8th century BC to the 7th century BC that confirm a likely presence of a Sabine settlement area have been discovered; on the hill, there was the tomb of Quirinus, which

According to Livy, the hill first became part of the city of Rome, along with the Viminal Hill, during the reign of Servius Tullius, Rome' sixth king, in the 6th century BC.^[2]

In 446 BC, a temple was dedicated on the Quirinal in honour of

On the Quirinal Hill Constantine the Great ordered the erection of his baths, the last thermae complex erected in imperial Rome. These are now lost, having been incorporated into Renaissance Rome, with only some drawings from the 16th century remaining.

In the

According to the political division of the center of Rome, the Hill belongs to the rione Trevi.

Quirinal Palace

The Quirinal Hill is today identified with the

The healthy

Several collections are in this Palazzo, including tapestries, paintings, statues, old carriages (carrozze), watches, furniture, and porcelain.

In Piranesi's view, the palazzo on the right is the Palazzo della Sacra Consulta, originally a villa built upon the ruins of the Baths of Constantine, which was adapted by Sixtus V as a civil and criminal court. The present façade was built in 1732–1734 by the architect Ferdinando Fuga on the orders of Pope Clement XII Corsini, whose coat-of-arms, trumpeted by two Fames, still surmounts the roofline balustrade, as in Piranesi's view. It formerly housed Mussolini's ministry of colonial affairs.

Other monuments

The hill is the site of other important monuments and buildings. Many of those built during the baroque period reflect the personal and spiritual aspirations of powerful local families:

• The church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1658–1671), for Cardinal Camillo Pamphilii (nephew of Pope Innocent X); it is one of the most elegant samples of baroque architecture in Rome, with its splendid interior of marble, stuccoes, and gilded decorations.
• The four fountains (Quattro Fontane) with reclining river gods (1588–93) commissioned by Pope Sixtus V.
• Barberini
  .
• The Piazza and Palazzo Barberini, built by Bernini and Maderno, which now houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.
• Palazzo Volpi di Misurata, across from San Carlino, built in the 18th century.
• Palazzo Albani del Drago, built by
  Albani Pope Clement XI; with the decline in the fortunes of Cardinal Alessandro Albani
  , it was sold to the del Drago, who occupy it still.
• Palazzo Baracchini, built 1876–83, now housing the Ministry of Defense.
• The church of San Silvestro al Quirinale, which was described for the first time circa 1000, rebuilt in the 16th century and restructured (façade) in the 19th.
• The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum
• The
  Palazzo Rospigliosi, contains some remains of Caracalla's temple of Serapis
• The Palazzo della Consulta hosts today the Constitutional Court, and was erected by Ferdinando Fuga for Pope Clement XII directly opposite Palazzo del Quirinale.
• The Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi (17th century) built by Giorgio Vasanzio and Carlo Maderno
• Proximate to the Baths of Constantine and the modern Sacripanti Palace,^[4][5] there is the dome of Titus Claudinanus and his female partner Claudia Vera. The local water pipes are inscribed with the initials of their names,^[6] which define Claudia as the "true girl" (in Latin: c(larissima) f(emina)).^[7]

See also

References