Sant'Angelo (rione of Rome)

Sant'Angelo is the 11th of Rome, Italy, located in Municipio I. Often written as , it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand. In another version, the angel holds a sword in its right hand and a scale in its left.The scale refers not to the symbolic scales of justice, but rather to the weighing of fish; Rome's fish market was located here throughout almost 1,400 years. In its first version, the coat of arms, the coat of Arms of Sant'Angelo displayed a silver fish on a red field.

Sant'Angelo, the smallest of Rome's rioni, lies along the Tiber river east of Tiber Island. Rioni bordering this district, clockwise from north to south, include Regola, Sant'Eustachio, Pigna, Campitelli, and Ripa. Sant'Angelo's western border is the river.

The rione's terrain is low and flat and, until the construction of the Lungotevere, particularly susceptible to flooding from the river.

The historical significance of Sant'Angelo is mainly the result of the presence here of the Roman Ghetto.

History

Roman Age: Circus Flaminius

During the early Roman period, the territory occupied by Sant'Angelo lay outside the Servian Walls, east of Tiber Island. This location at a point where the river could be forded easilyat least in summerhad great strategic importance. The oldest stone bridge of Rome, the , was completed in 142 BC and stood slightly south of the island. The Cestian and Fabrician bridges, built during the 1st century BC to connect the island with the right and the left bank respectively, further increased the importance of the area.

The area housed the Circus Flaminius, which lay near the Capitoline Hill and the Forum and served as the site of the as well as the starting point for Roman triumphs.Staccioli, 208. It was also the home of the Forum Olitorium, the Roman vegetable market, as well as porticos built by Gnaeus Octavius in 168 BC and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus in 146 BC and temples to Hercules Musarum, Juno Regina, Jupiter Stator, Bellona, Apollo Medicus, Juno Sospita, Hope, and Piety.

In the 1st century BC, Pompey the Great built his grand marble theater and portico nearby. Julius Caesar intended to outdo these but construction was completed much later by Augustus, who dedicated his theater to his nephew Marcellus. It could hold 15,000 spectators at a time.Staccioli, 204. L. Cornelius Balbus built his own smaller theater in the area as well in 13 BC. It featured a cryptoportico, whose remains are still visible beside the Via delle Botteghe Oscure.

During the Empire, the district was part of , one of fourteen Roman regions. Augustus further beautified the area by destroying both of its previous porticos, replacing them with the Porticus Octaviae dedicated to his sister and the Porticus Philippi constructed by his stepbrother L. Marcius Philippus. In addition to their rehabilitated temples, the Portico of Octavia also included Greek and Latin libraries and 34 bronze statues by Lysippos portraying Alexander the Great and the soldiers who fell during the Battle of the Granicus.Staccioli, 206. Part of the area used for these enlarged plazas was obtained at the expense of the Circus Flaminius.

Middle Ages: Sant'Angelo in foro piscium

After the end of the Empire the monumental edifices collapsed,The Emperor Valentinian I in the second half of the fourth century demolished part of the scaena of the theater of Marcellus to rebuild the Pons Cestius. Delli, 819. but some of them were transformed into fortresses. Several factors played an important role in this transformation: first, the size and solidity of construction; then, the closeness to the Tiber (after the rupture of the aqueducts during the Gothic War, the river became the only source of drinking water for the city). Finally, the possibility of controlling the access to the right bank via the Pons Fabricius, Cestius and Aemilius,Known later as"Ponte rotto" ("broken bridge"). the only bridges which were still in place inside the Aurelian Walls by that time.

The baronial families of the Fabii and later of the Savelli, which owned also the stronghold on the Aventine named Corte Savella, nested inside the theatre of Marcellus, while inside the Theater and the Crypta of Balbus the Stefaneschi built the stronghold known as Castrum aureum ("golden castle"), which later was donated to the monastery of Santa Caterina.

The fish market moved from the Forum Piscarium, located near the Forum Romanum, into the ruins of the Porticus Octaviae, which kept this function up to the end of the 19th century, becoming one of the most picturesque places in Rome.

During the Middle Ages the district got the name of Vinea Thedemari, while its northern part was named Calcaràrio, after the limekilns ("Calcàre"), which throughout centuries produced quicklime obtained by burning the marbles of the Roman Fora.

Later appeared also the appellation Sant'Angelo, after the most important church of the rione, Sant'Angelo in Foro Piscium ("St. Angel in the Fish Market"). This church, erected in 770 AD inside the Propylea of the Portico of Octavia, had a great historical importance during the Middle Ages. From here, on the Whitsunday of 1347, the Romans, led by Cola di Rienzo, launched the assault on the Capitol, attempting to restore the Roman Republic.

Being a quarter inhabited mainly by people belonging to the working-class, Sant'Angelo, like the neighboring districts of Regola and Ripa, hosted many guilds: near the church of Santa Caterina were active the rope makers,These gave the name to the church, which was called Santa Caterina dei Funari ("St. Catherine by the rope-makers"). This is actually the only church in Rome whose name does not come from the patronage of a Guild, but from the closeness of the workers which exercised this job to the church. Pietrangeli. who twisted their ropes in the 60 m long porticoed yard of the Crypta Balbi. Along the Botteghe Oscure ("Dark shops")—as the arcades of the Theater of Balbus were called— was produced quicklime, while smiths and coppersmiths had their shops inside the arcades of the theater of Marcellus.The last coppersmiths worked there until the restoration of the theater in 1926. Finally, carders and shearers worked near the church of San Valentino,The church of San Valentino dei Mercanti was pulled down shortly after 1870. Pietrangeli, 66. while fish mongers were placed under the Portico d'Ottavia, where they sold the fishes on marble slabs which were expensively rented by the noble Roman families. On the wall near the Portico is still visible a copy of the marble plaque (the original can be seen in the Musei Capitolini), whose length gives the maximum size of the fishes which could be sold whole. Those which were longer would have their heads cut off. These had to be given as a perquisite to the Conservatori (the town councillors of papal Rome), who used them to prepare a fish soup.The inscription said "CAPITA PISCIUM HOC MARMOREO SCHEMATE LONGITUDINE MAIORUM USQUE AD PRIMAS PINNAS INCLUSIVE CONSERVATORIBUS DANTO" in English: The heads of fish longer than the markings on this marble shall be given to the counsellors, up to and including the first fins.. Delli, 83. The most typical activity in the market was the fish auction, known as cottío, which took place every night after 2 a.m. Particularly popular in Rome was the cottío on December 23. Many Romans attended it to buy the fish needed for the dinner of Christmas Eve, and many more just to watch the show. It marked the beginning of the Christmas holidays.Zanazzo, 160.

Renaissance: Serraglio delli Ebrei

The Renaissance reached Sant'Angelo around the middle of the 15th century. At that time Lorenzo Manili, a noble Roman antiquarian enthusiastic about his city, built his house with a façade containing Roman bas-reliefs and a long inscription in Latin, where he praises the rebirth of the Eternal City.The house lies near the north end of Via del Portico d'Ottavia. Above the windows can still be read the sentence "HAVE ROMA". Pietrangeli, 48.

In the 16th century, the Savelli had built on the top of the Theatre of Marcellus a beautiful palace, the work of Baldassarre Peruzzi, later owned by the Orsini. In the meantime, in the north side of the rione, another powerful family, the Mattei, erected four palaces,The four Palazzi are known as: Mattei di Giove (masterpiece of Carlo Maderno), of Giacomo Mattei (work of Nanni di Baccio Bigio), Mattei di Paganica, and of Alessandro Mattei (now Caetani). Pietrangeli. which together formed a whole block, named "Isola dei Mattei" ("Mattei's block").The view of the yard of Palazzo Mattei di Giove in spring, decorated with Roman statues and reliefs, and flooded with rambling roses, teaches us more than many books about the life in Rome during the Renaissance. Other noble families too, like the Costaguti, Santacroce and Serlupi, chose to build their residences here in that period.

But, while the wind of the Renaissance was starting to blow around Rome, another event changed deeply the destiny of the rione: the arrival of the Jews. A Jewish colony was present in Rome since the beginning of the Christian era, but the Jews by then had been living in Transtiberim, near the Port of Ripa Grande.

Because of the decay of the river trade, at the beginning of the 15th century they left the right bank and scattered through the city. By that time, in Rome there were about 2,000 Jews: 1,200 were living in Sant'Angelo (where they totaled 80 per cent of the population), 350 in Regola, 200 in Ripa, while the others were distributed among the remaining districts.Delli, 435.

On 14 July 1555, Pope Paul IV, one of the champions of the Counter-Reformation, promulgated the Bull "Cum nimis absurdum", where he revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and enclosed them in a walled district,The wall was built under the direction of the architect Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi. The money for its construction – 300 scudi – had to be paid by the Jewish community. the Ghetto. The Christians who were owners of the houses placed inside the Ghetto could keep the property but, thanks to the so-called "jus gazzagà" (right of possession) they could neither evict the Jews nor raise the rents.Around 1860 a large apartment in Ghetto had to be rented for 30 Scudi per month. The rent had remained the same since the reign of Urban VIII. The same apartment on the free market cost 450 Scudi. About, 96.

The wall was interrupted by two gates,Later in the sixteenth century the gates became three: under Sixtus V five, and finally, during the nineteenth century eight. These increases were caused by successive enlargement of the Area. Pietrangeli, 44. which were opened at dawn and closed every night, one hour after sunset between November and Easter, and two hours otherwise.Pietrangeli. The area had a trapezoidal shape, and contained hardly any noteworthy buildings. The only important square – Piazza GiudeaOn the square were placed the barracks of the gendarmes which controlled the ghetto, and there was practiced the torment of the strappado ("la corda"). Pietrangeli, 45. – was divided in two parts by the wall. All the churches which stood in the Ghetto were deconsecrated and demolished soon after its construction.

The Roman Jews were allowed to practice only unskilled jobs, as ragmen, secondhand dealersDe Rossi, 222. or fishmongers. They could also be pawnbrokers, and this activity excited the hate of the Christians against them.