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Monuments
Monuments
Bocca della verità square
The square takes its name from the famous Mouth of Truth, the maskaron
which is inside the porch of the church of St. Mary in Cosmedin. According
to a famous Roman legend the threatening mouth would snap shut on the
hand of the liers
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The
square is in the middle of an ancient commercial area between Rome and the
harbour along the river by the Tiber
Island and the Emporium, the warehouse. Here there were also the Forum
Olitorio (for vegetables) and the Forum Boario (cattle); bankers
and moneychangers run their business in the Velabro. After the Fall of the
Roman Empire it fell under Byzantine influence and became the centre of
the Greek colony. In this area capital executions took place untill 1868
using the guillotine. Here was in charge the famous Mastro Titta who from
1796 to 1864 became sadly known for having cutted 516 heads! Nowadays the
square offers a complex of monuments unique in the world: two ancient temples
still preserved, a fountain dating back to the 1700's, a medieval church
flanked by a splendid bell-tower. The Temple of Vesta which is named after
its uncanny but unconnected resemblance to the Temple of Vesta in the Roman
Forum. It is among Rome's first marble buildings dating back to the
II cent. B.C. its initial dedication was to the conquering god Hercules
Victor. It was consecrated as a Christian church, the interior walls were
painted with frescoes in the 1400's. Beside it rises the Temple of Portunus,
a god of harbours, typical example of Greek-Roman architecture which dates
from the 2nd century B.C. Until the 1800's the church was dedicated to Santa
Maria Egiziaca, ex-courtesan and for this reason she bacame the protectress
of prositutes. To decorate the square the pope, Clemens XI commissioned
a beautiful late-baroque fountain, designed in 1715 by Carlo Bizzaccheri,
two tritons, with their tails woven raise two shells and on the top the
mountains, symbol of the Albani family, tossing a jet up in the air.
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