Before restoration
DOPO
DETTAGLIO
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The property is part of the Sant’Eustacchio district. The heraldic symbol of the district dates back to a Christian legend. Placido, captain of the militias under Trajan, while going hunting in the Mentorella mountains above Tivoli, came across a deer which bore the face of the Redeemer between its branchy antlers. Shaken by the miracle, Placido converted and, once baptised, he named himself Eustachio. A few years later, under the reign of Hadrian, guilty of being Christian and not honoring the gods, he was exposed to face the lions together with his wife and children but the animals, miraculously, did not dare touch them, on the contrary, they bowed their heads and they moved away.
As a consequence, the emperor had Eustace and his family locked up in a fiery bronze bull: they died instantly, but when the corpses of the martyrs were extracted from the horrendous instrument of death they were intact. His house was transformed into a place of worship and later on it gave rise to the church of S.Eustachio.
Beside being a crucial center of intellectual life with the university world of ancient Sapienza and the shows of the Teatro Valle, the district is characterized by a large number of churches built on the initiative of artisan guilds and national and European communities, from S.Andrea della Valle to S.Luigi de’ Francesi, from S.Agostino to S.Carlo ai Catinari, while the Senate of the Republic resides in the historic Palazzo Madama.
Even the S.Eustachio district, like unfortunately many others, has suffered major demolitions, such as the one that occurred during the construction of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the one for the opening of Corso del Rinascimento, where there was “Via delle Cinque Lune”. S.Eustachio was named VIII district of Rome on 18 May 1743, with a chirograph from Pope Benedict XI.
Piazza della Rotonda, is also known as Piazza del Pantheon. The toponym derives from the popular name given by the Romans to the great monument that arrived intact from ancient Rome “the Rotonna”.
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