Tiber Island – Roma

Description

Legend holds that the Tiber Island, in the very centre of the Tiber River in Rome, grew up from the sheafs of wheat dumped by the Romans after their rout of the seventh and last king, Tarquinius Superbus. However, it is actually a block of tuff rock in the shape of a warship. Connected to both riverbanks with brick bridges since the 1^st century AD, the island became a centre for the cult of Aesculapius with a large temple dedicated to the god of medicine.

Towards the end of the 1500s, construction began on the first buildings of the hospital dedicated today to St. John Calybita who is also the patron saint of the church facing the medieval Caetani Tower. The hospital has been managed ever since by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God, whose members are better known in Italy as the Fatebenefratelli (the Do-Good Brothers or Brothers of Mercy). The most important religious building on the island is, undoubtedly, the Church of St. Bartholomew of the Island built by Emperor Otto III towards the end of the 10^th century on the ruins of the Temple of Aesculapius, initially in honour of St. Adalbert of Prague and from 1180, dedicated to the apostle whose body is buried here. The column topped with a cross that faces the church, which was completely renovated between the 16^th and 17^th centuries, was installed by Pope Pius IX in 1889. Luigi Magni shot the famous sequence of Filippo Spada’s suicide attempt here in Nell'anno del Signore (1969).

Position on map