Subway construction brings a few surprises (no, not underground)
This year Rome’s temporary transit company Metro C (a consortium formed for the purposes of constructing the newest subway line) began work on our neighborhood station, Chiesa Nuova. Led by the Webuild Group (via Partecipazioni Italia), alongside Vianini Lavori and Hitachi Rail, the consortium is huge and so is the project. We’ve already seen the massive and impressive station at the Colosseum, and work proceeds below Piazza Venezia. The next stop on the line will be right around the corner from the Borromini Institute!
The project is so big (and so mysterious; I have been unable to find more than a general preliminary render or the new piazza) that it will take at least a decade. During that time there was the problem of where to keep the fountain by Giacomo della Porta which sat between the centuries old Pawlonia trees and the statue of Metastasio. The historic trees were sadly sacrificed, the statue still stands, and the fountain was moved around the corner. It now graces our own Piazza dell’Orologio.
The Fountain of the Tureen as it was nicknamed, was originally located in Campo de’ Fiori, placed there in 1595. The lid was added later to keep it from being used as a pool. The fountain moved in the late 19th century to Chiesa Nuova, after a long spell in a Testaccio warehouse.
Now it is temporarily propped up on a concrete base outside our front door, not quite on axis with the building. Here it is just a monument, not a fountain, as no water supply has been connected to it. But it performs a useful function of preventing at least some of the cars which normally park in this nominally “pedestrian” zone. We can’t wait for the fence to come down so our students can sit in the shade beneath this big soup bowl.
