Roman Scenes II

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. Piazza Navona. Rome

The essence of all-beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

Friedrich Nietzsche 

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SoHo

Broome St & Wooster St. SoHo. Manhattan. NY

It’s the citizen who changes things.
Jose Saramago
Our World Tuesday
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Piazza del Popolo

Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto are two churches in Rome.

They are located on the Piazza del Popolo, facing the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls, at the entrance of Via del Corso on the square. The churches are often cited as "twin", due to their similar external appearance: they have indeed some differences, in both plan and exterior details.

Looking from the square, the two churches define the so-called "trident" of streets departing from Piazza del Popolo: starting from the left, Via del Babuino, Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta. The first two are separated by Santa Maria in Montesanto, the latter by Santa Maria dei Miracoli.

The origin of the two churches traces back to the 17th century restoration of what was the main entrance to the Middle Ages and Renaissance Rome, from the Via Flaminia (known as Via Lata and Via del Corso in its urban trait). Pope Alexander VII commissioned the monumental design of the entrance of Via del Corso to architect Carlo Rainaldi. This included two churches with central plant, but the different shapes of the two areas available forced deep modifications to the projects. Both were financed by cardinal Girolamo Gastaldi, whose crest is present in the two churches. [Wiki]

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A Town Within a City

Tlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost all of it on the northern edge, has been urban since the mid 20th century. When it was created in 1928, it was named after the most important settlement of the area, Tlalpan, which is referred to as “Tlalpan center” to distinguish it from the borough. This center, despite being in the urbanized zone, still retains much of its provincial atmosphere with colonial era mansions and cobblestone streets. Much of the borough’s importance stems from its forested conservation areas, as it functions to provide oxygen to the Valley of Mexico and serves for aquifer recharge. Seventy percent of Mexico City’s water comes from wells in this borough.

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