December 6, 2014: Horses in Rome Advent Calendar

Today the search for horses in Rome takes us to the National Museum of Oriental Art. This museum is an interesting collection of Eastern artefacts from the Middle East to Japan, ancient to modern, and many addenda to the collection because of Italian archeological exploration. You can find many interesting representations of horses. These are just a few.

The Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale is not far from the main train station in Rome, Stazione Termini. Via Meruluna, 248.

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.

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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