Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II – known simply as Piazza Vittorio – in the multicultural Esquiline neighbourhood of Rome was built by Gaetano Koch in Umbertine Style, with wide porticoes on each side of the square, and officially inaugurated on 19 June 1882.
The gardens in the centre of the square, named after Nicola Calipari, feature various fountains: in the northern corner are the remains of the nymphaeum of Alexander, an ancient fountain that was once the terminal of the Aqua Julia aqueduct and is also known as the trofei di Mario; the fountain of Glaucus (ironically nicknamed “fried fish”) is a sculptural group from 1910 by Mario Rutelli featuring a dolphin, three tritons and a large octopus; while and most recent addition is the fountain degli Zampilli.
Flanked by statues of the Egyptian god Bes is the so-called Magic door (or Alchemic Door) which is part of a wall and all that remains of Villa Palombara, whose construction by the Marquis Oddo Savelli of Palombara began in 1620 and which was demolished in the late 1800s. The door has esoteric and cabalistic symbols – triangles, planets, Hebrew and Latin inscriptions – formulas that apparently hold the secret of the philosopher’s stone.
The Church of St. Eusebius in the northern corner dates to the 4th century and was restructured in 1230 during the pontificate of Gregory IX and rebuilt in 1711 by Stefano Fontana.
A large open-air market was located in the square from the end of the 19th century through to the 1990s.
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