Hello giulio
The Via Urbana is laid upon the ancient Roman street, Vicus Patricius,
which was an exclusive street and already ancient in Nero's time. The
road was almost on top of one of the peaks of the Esquiline Hill and
is said to date as far back as the reign of King Servius Tullius. The
very name of the street is a good indication that it was an area where
high ranking nobility lived. It was from one of these families that
Senator Pudens originated. You will read a little more of him further
down the page.
Viscus Patricius branched off from the Subura and ran north between
the Cispius and the Viminal to the porta Viminalis and perhaps beyond.
Santa Prudenziana, the first Christian church in Rome, was built on
the street. The church is situated 4 meters below the modern ground
level and is considered the oldest in Rome It has a splendid mosaic
that dates to the 9th century plus the ruins of a two-storey Roman
house. One of the legends of Santa Prudenziana is that St Peter
stayed with Senator Pudens while in Rome, and his house was probably
at the site of the Santa Pudenziana. According to traditions about
the first Christian community, it was in this senator's home (and in
the homes of Marcellus and Nicostratus) that the early Christians met
to listen to Peter preaching. The apostle is also said to have been
given lodgings and hospitality in this house and to have baptised
Pudens and his children. This is born out by traditional
hagiographical sources which, moreover, do not conflict with
historical and archeological research of the area.
A chapel commemorating this can be found to the left of the high
altar. A portion of the superstructure of the modern church of St.
Pudentiana is thought to be part of the senatorial palace or of the
baths built by Novatus.
I have even used the novel "Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz" to find
reference to the ancient street: -
"The litter was waiting long since; hence they took their places, and
Petronius gave command to bear them to the Vicus Patricius, to the
house of Aulus. Petronius's 'insula' lay on the southern slope of the
Palatine, near the so-called Carinae; their nearest way, therefore,
was below the Forum; but since Petronius wished to step in on the way
to see the jeweller Idomeneus, he gave the direction to carry them
along the Vicus Apollinis and the Forum in the direction of the Vicus
Sceleratus, on the corner of which were many tabernae of every kind."
At the end of Via Urbana, climb the slope of the Borgia to reach the
Church of St. Peter in Chains, the home of Michelangelo's statue of
Moses, sculpted for Pope Julius II's tomb. Ancient tradition has this
as the place where Peter was held in prison. Historically that may
very well be likely. Nearby stood the ancient Prafectura Urbis
(Palace of Justice) which was a venue for court hearings and also
contained cells for holding prisoners.
The Via Urbana (the ancient Vicus Patricius) was straightened under
Pope Urban VIII and is included on Tempesta's map of 1593 which shows
the nature of the street system clearly.
The Via Urbana is also home to the Pontifical Urban University,
founded in 1627.
Via Urbana was the site of much building activity during the Middle
Ages and Renaissance but today is a quiet residential street with only
one lane and is located in what is known as "The Monti Quarter." -
photo here: http://www.lucidmatrix.com/uploads/monti-q-urbana-da-m10.jpg
- please note, if you wish to keep this photo, it will only be online
at this address for 30 days and you need to copy it. The photo is
from the website "Monti quarter: streets, piazzas, and life" where you
can see other images of the Monti Quarter.
( http://www.romanhomes.com/monti-quarter-streets.htm )
If you are visiting there and would like a night at the theater,
"Friday Night Live" is supported by the Canadian and US embassies in
Rome and offers theater shows in English every Friday evening. the
location is at the Arte del Teatro Studio in Via Urbana, 107 near the
Cavour underground stop.
The street is also home to several small hotels (some quite good) and
some delightful restaurants.
I hate to say it, but the answer you are getting here may very well be
the most information about Via Urbana collected in any one spot on the
web. There are web sites dealing with specific churches, hotels, a
few restaurants, tours, ancient history, Christian history, the Monti
Quarter, etc, but none seem bring it all together in one place.
Websites used to compile the above:
"Monti quarter: streets, piazzas, and life." - a summary and photo
collection about the Monti Quarter.
( http://www.romanhomes.com/monti-quarter-streets.htm )
"Churches of Rome: Homes of the Saints" - self explanatory -
( http://home.online.no/~cnyborg/homes.html )
"Pagina gił" - commercial website for the Roma Inn
( http://www.romeguide.it/romainn/dovpag.html )
"Walking tour Rome, visit Rione Monti, Moses, Domus Aurea" - a
commercial tour page about walking tours of ancient Roman areas.
( http://activitaly.it/inglese/itinerari/noflash/monti.htm )
"Joseph Connors, "Alliance and Enmity in Roman Baroque Urbanism,"... -
site dealing with Renaissance urbanism.
( http://www.columbia.edu/~jc65/cvlinks/alliance.html )
"Stefania Falasca and Giovanni Ricciardi" - a site about Peter in
ancient Rome
( http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:g79HM6AVtfIC:www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/PETEROME.HTM+Vicus+Patricius&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8
) - please note that this URL is Google's cache of the page in
question. I could not connect with the current version. Perhaps you
can.
"LacusCurtius & #149; Streets of Ancient Rome (Platner & Ashby, 1929)"
- self explanatory
( http://www.ku.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/.Texts/PLATOP*/vici.html
)
"Pastor" - site dealing with the history of Peter and Senator Pudens
( http://www.ccel.org/w/wace/biodict/htm/iii.xvi.xvii.htm )
"Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz" - (
http://www.4literature.net/Henryk_Sienkiewicz/Quo_Vadis/6.html )
If I can possibly clarify any of the above, please don't hesitate to
ask prior to rating the answer. And even if you do go ahead and rate
the answer, I'll still be here to answer your questions.
Search - Google
Key terms - Via Urbana, Vicus Patricius, Roman streets ancient, Roman
streets modern, Roman christian history, Roman history, Senator
Pudens, Roman tours, Roman walking tours
Cheers
digsalot |
