Piazza Navona
A Baroque theatre built on the footprint of a 1st-century stadium — Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers at its centre, street artists along the edges, and cafés that charge a fortune for the privilege of sitting here. Come for the obelisk, stay for the people-watching.
The piazza still follows the exact oval footprint of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD to host athletic contests; excavated sections of the original arena are visible beneath the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone at one end. Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers at the centre represents the Nile, Ganges, Danube and Río de la Plata — one river for each continent then known to Europeans. The often-repeated story that the fountain's figures were angled to avoid looking at Borromini's church is a popular legend rather than documented history, since the church was actually built after the fountain was already in place.
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The piazza's oval shape isn't a design choice — it's the literal footprint of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 86 AD to host athletic contests for up to 30,000 spectators. Rome built palazzi and churches directly on top of the stadium's ruins over the following centuries, and the ancient shape simply never went away.
What stands here now is one of the city's great Baroque set pieces, built almost entirely in the seventeenth century.
The stadium underneath, and where you can still see it
Excavated sections of the original Roman arena are visible beneath the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, at one end of the piazza — a small, separately accessible site that most visitors standing in the square above have no idea is there. The stadium hosted Greek-style athletic games rather than gladiatorial combat, which was the Colosseum's business a few hundred metres away.
The piazza's name is itself a corruption of the Latin in agone, meaning roughly 'at the games' — the same root that gives the neighbouring church its name.
Four rivers, one continent each
Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, at the centre of the piazza, represents the Nile, Ganges, Danube and Río de la Plata — one river for each of the continents then known to Europeans, arranged around an obelisk that Bernini incorporated from an earlier Roman monument. Each river god is posed to reflect what was then understood, or misunderstood, about its source: the Nile figure has its head veiled, since the river's source was still unknown to Europeans in the 1600s.
The often-repeated story that the fountain's figures were deliberately angled to avoid looking at Borromini's church of Sant'Agnese, out of professional rivalry between the two architects, is a popular legend rather than documented history — the church was actually built after Bernini's fountain was already in place, which makes the whole premise impossible.
Two smaller fountains, and the price of a coffee
Two further fountains anchor the piazza's other ends: the Fountain of Neptune to the north and the Fountain of the Moor to the south, both later additions that complete the square's symmetry. Street artists and portrait painters have worked the piazza's edges for generations, alongside cafés that charge tourist prices for the privilege of a table with a fountain view — worth knowing before sitting down for what looks like an innocent espresso.
The piazza is at its best in the early morning, before the crowds and the street performers arrive, or in the evening, when the fountains are lit and the square takes on an entirely different character.
Piazza Navona: common questions
01Why is Piazza Navona oval-shaped?
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Because it sits directly on the footprint of the Stadium of Domitian, a 1st-century Roman athletics stadium. The piazza's shape is the stadium's shape — nothing was redesigned, the ancient outline simply persisted through everything built on top of it.
02Did Bernini and Borromini really have a rivalry over Piazza Navona?
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They were real professional rivals, but the specific legend — that Bernini's fountain figures were posed to avoid looking at Borromini's church — isn't true. The church was built after the fountain, making the story chronologically impossible.
03What do the four figures on the fountain represent?
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The Nile, Ganges, Danube and Río de la Plata rivers — one for each continent known to Europeans when Bernini built the fountain in 1651. Each figure's pose reflects what was then known about its river's source.
04Is Piazza Navona free to visit?
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Yes, the piazza itself is a public square with no entry fee. The excavated stadium ruins beneath Sant'Agnese in Agone are a separate, small paid site at one end of the square.