December 5, 2014: Horses in Rome Advent Calendar

Horses and carriages can often be seen carrying riders around the historic center of Rome.

Piazza Venezia

Via del Corso

December 4, 2014: Horses in Rome Advent Calendar

Mosaics with horses in the Ostiense Train Station:
The Ostiense Train Station replaced and earlier rural railway station with the aim of creating a monumental station to receive Adolf Hitler in 1938. The black and white mosaics on the floor commemorate various themes and legends of Rome's history.

December 3, 2014: Horses in Rome Advent Calendar

Piazza Navona: There are three fountains in Piazza Navona, the square built above the 1st-century AD Stadium of Domitian. Horses are part of two of these fountains.

Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) has a horse emerging between representations of the Ganges River and the Nile River

 Fountain of Neptune designed by Giacomo Della Porta (1574) has three seahorses frolicking in the water that were added by Antonio Della Bitta in 1878.

.

December 2, 2014: Horses in Rome Advent Calendar

At the top of the step leading to the Campidoglio and the stature of Marcus Aurelius we encounter the twins Castor and Pollux, two mythical horse tamers. The statues are ancient Roman copies of 5th-century BC Greek originals.

December 1, 2014: Horses in Rome Advent Calendar

For the first day of December we go to the center of Rome on the Capitoline Hill. In the Piazza Campidoglio designed by Michaelangelo is what is probably the world's most famous equestrian monument, the 2nd Century AD statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, seated on a Hungarian horse. Depicted without weapons or armour, Marcus Aurelius seems to be a bringer of peace rather than a military hero, which is how he saw himself.

Today a reproduction is the the piazza, while the original is housed in the adjacent Capitoline Museums. It is the only surviving bronze statue of a pre-Christian emperor to survive, only because it was originally thought to be Constantine, the first Christian emperor.

Advent Calendar for 2014: Horses in Rome

I remember Advent Calendars from my childhood, and over the years I shared them with my own kids, Emily and Peter. We would look forward to opening a window and revealing a picture, and sometimes a verse, relating to Christmas. (It seemed we only had windows. Friends have remembered chocolates or small gifts behind the windows.)

Previous years I have posted Roman windows, doors, gates, angels, fountains, modern churches and stairs. This year I have chosen "Horses in Rome" as a theme for the 24 days before Christmas. Each day through December 24th you can come to this blog and see a photo I have taken of different horses in Rome.

The first day of Advent this year is November 30th. Because it is not part of the 24 days before Christmas, I have chosen horses in Rome that you cannot see right because they are behind scaffolding and a curtain for the restoration of Trevi Fountain.

Horses of Trevi Fountain

Via Appia Antica (just before VI Miglio)

 A Spring day is a great time to stroll along the Via Appia Antica, the Queen of the Roads.

Wedding couple enjoying the photo possibilities along the via Appia Antica.

 

 

From the translation of the text written by Romolo Augusto Staccioli of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” for the tourist map “La Via Appia Antica” published for free by Azuenda di Promozione Turistica di Roma.

VIA APPIA ANTICA was the first and most important of the great roads which the Romans built. Rightly called the Regina Viarum, or queen of roads, it was constructed towards the end of the 4th century B.C. in order to set up a fast communication between Rome and Capua. The whole distance was 132 miles, and was normally covered in a journey lasting five or six days.

The year of birth of the road was 312 B.C., when Appius Claudius held the office of censor in Rome: he was the magistrate who had the road built, giving it his own name. Its planning followed a surprisingly modern approach, which left the intermediate towns to one side, though they were linked to it by apposite streets, and aimed straight for the objective. The road thus had to be built overcoming great natural obstacles like the Pontine marshes by means of important engineering works.

The first stretch, as far as Terracina, was an extremely long straight line of approximately ninety kilometres in length, the last 28 of which flanked by an artificial canal that allowed one to alternate the carriage or horseback trip with a boat ride. 

The Appian way was lengthened several times: at first immediately after 268 B.C., as far as Beneventum, then from there to the Appenines, thence to Venosa and finally on to Taranto. During the second century before Christ, lastly, it was taken as far as Brindisi, gateway to the East.

 This is actually just past VI Miglio.