Piazza Navona and the Stadium of Domitian

A private visit to Piazza Navona and the Stadium of Domitian — the square above, and the building whose shape it has been standing in for two thousand years.

Why Piazza Navona is that shape

It is not a square. It is a running track.

Around 80 CE the Emperor Domitian built a stadium here for Greek-style athletic contests — the first and only masonry stadium in Rome, seating something in the order of thirty thousand people. The medieval city grew directly on top of the seating, using the ancient foundations as walls, and the arena floor became the open space in the middle. The elongated oval you walk through today is the track, preserved by accident.

Even the name comes from it. The Greek games were the agones; the site was called in agone, which slurred over the centuries into n’agone, and then into Navona.

Underground

The surviving ruins sit about four and a half metres below the modern pavement, reached from the northern end of the square. What is down there is the outer arcade and the entrance corridors — travertine piers, brick vaults, and the level at which Rome stood in the first century.

It is the only place where you can see the stadium as a building rather than as an outline.

Above ground

• Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers, 1651, with the obelisk balanced over a hollowed rock
• The Fontana del Moro and the Fontana del Nettuno at either end
• Sant’Agnese in Agone by Borromini — built on the spot where Agnes was martyred, in the stadium’s brothel arcade
• The tradition of flooding the square each August, from 1652 until 1866, and staging mock naval battles in it

Practical information

• The underground site has restricted opening hours and limited capacity. Booking ahead is necessary
• Steep stairs down and no lift
• About 2 hours including the square. Combines easily with the Pantheon, which is five minutes away

For the longer baroque walk that takes in Trevi and the Spanish Steps as well, see the squares and fountains tour. Caravaggio’s Matthew cycle is one street away, in San Luigi dei Francesi.