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La Borsa, Piazza di Pietra
Bus: 117, 119, 492
The Temple of Hadrian is an ancient Roman
building, built on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian at the
beginning of the 2nd century AD. This temple honors Emperor Hadrian
as a god and was dedicated to his son and successor Antoninus Pius
in 145 AD. The remains of the temple are visible on the south side
of Piazza di Pietra, built into the building of the 17th century. It
was originally papal customs, completed by Carlo Fontana and his son
in the 1690s. Today the building houses the Roman Stock Exchange (La
Borsa). Eleven 49-foot-tall marble Corinthian columns based on
Peperinsky stone, a volcanic rock mined from the Alban hills south
of Rome. Columns of the temple of Adrian decorated the northern
flank of the temple, surrounding its inner shrine, cella.
A
number of reliefs of the Temple of Hadrian, representing the
conquered Roman provinces, are now in the courtyard of the Palazzo
dei Conservatory. They reflect mainly the peaceful foreign policy of
the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Theatrical situation, and the playful
forms of its windows, balconies and balusters mark the area as one
of the very interesting groups of buildings. Along with the Palazzo
Doria Pamphilus (1731), the facade of La Maddalena (1735) and the
aristocratic Spanish Staircase (1723), it refers to the moment when
the luxurious Roman Rococo defeated conservative classicism.
The temple was erected in honor of the emperor Hadrian, deified after
his death. It is likely that the construction site of the building had
already been started under Hadrian himself to dedicate it to his wife
Vibia Sabina, who died and was deified in 136. With works that have
perhaps just begun, the actual construction of the temple is due to his
successor, Antonino Pio, and was finished around 145.
In 1695,
under the pontificate of Innocent XII, the remains of the temple were
incorporated by Carlo Fontana into the Palazzo della Dogana di Terra. In
1831 the building was used as the seat of the Rome Stock Exchange,
before passing to the Rome Chamber of Commerce. Eleven of the thirteen
original columns on the north side still remain visible, currently
incorporated in the building that houses the main headquarters of the
Rome Chamber of Commerce.
The building was in the past
erroneously known as the temple of Neptune.
Topography
According to the regional catalogs, the temple was located in the Regio
IX Circus Flaminius, and was placed in relation to the nearby Temple of
Matidia, dedicated by Hadrian himself to his mother-in-law, Salonina
Matidia. This area began to be strongly monumentalized by this emperor
(see Pantheon) and later used for the imperial funeral. Here, in fact,
two ustrini and two honorary columns were raised, dedicated respectively
to Antonino Pio and Marcus Aurelius, the second of which was inspired by
the Trajan's Column. To these monuments was also added the construction
of a new temple, dedicated to Marcus Aurelius, located near the column
named after him.
The temple had an arched access, from which some
panels may have been taken, later inserted into the arch of Portugal and
now preserved in the Capitoline Museums.
Features
The temple
was an octastyle peripteral (with 8 columns on the front) and had 13
Corinthian columns of white Proconnesian marble on the long sides. Today
only 11 Corinthian columns remain along the north side, 15 meters high
and 1.44 meters in diameter, raised above a podium of peperino 4 meters
high (originally covered with marble), today buried with respect to the
square due to the elevation. of the street level. Above the columns
there is also a section of their entablature, which continues, rebuilt
in a modern way, also on the side wings of the building that
incorporated the temple.
The cell wall was originally covered
with marble, as shown by the fixing holes in the slabs. The remains of
the cell are visible inside the building of the Stock Exchange: this was
without an apse, punctuated by semi-columns and covered by a barrel
vault with coffers. These semi-columns rested on pedestals, where the
Roman provinces were represented, while in the intermediate spaces
representations of trophies were inserted. The significance of these
representations concerns Hadrian's policy of pacification and
reorganization of the imperial territories, at the end of a period of
great conquests by his predecessor, Trajan.
The temple was
surrounded by a large arcaded square (100 x 90 meters approximately),
with columns of ancient yellow marble, which opened towards via Lata
(now via del Corso) with a monumental arch, of which two reliefs are
preserved, at the Museo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Torlonia in Rome.
This arch has been identified with the one defined as "di Antonino",
also known as "di Claudio" and "dei Tosetti", from the name of the
family who lived in Piazza Sciarra, now disappeared following the
widening of the Via del Corso. The arch, albeit ruined and in ruins,
still gave the name to via dell'Archetto in the 18th century. It was
demolished precisely because of the poor conditions in which it found
itself.
According to recent investigations, the square had to
have, at least on the northern side, a large exedra on the model of
those of the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan. It is very
likely that an identical environment should have found a place on the
southern side of the enclosure. Together, these two environments were to
host activities related to jurisdiction.
Over the centuries, a series of Proconnesian marble reliefs have been found in the area, which perhaps decorated the portico, attic or podium of the temple. According to this latest reconstruction, the pedestals of the columns were decorated with vertical plinths with personifications of the provinces of the empire, while in correspondence of the intercolumns there were reliefs with military trophies of weapons and armor. The reliefs wanted to reflect the more peaceful politics of Hadrian compared to his predecessor Trajan: they showed a review of the peoples and regions that made up the Roman Empire, with the aim of enhancing the power of Rome and the achievement of a new period of substantial peace that did not exist since the time of Augustus. We have received six trophies and sixteen provincial allegories, preserved in various museums and collections: the identification of the figures is still the subject of debate by scholars.