Via della Conciliazione, 1936

The road joins the city of Rome to the Vatican State offering a panoramic view of St. Peter’s Square with a straight line from the banks of the Tiber to the door of the wonderful Basilica.

The street was designed in 1936 and involved the consequent demolition of the Spina dei Borghi: the buildings between the two parallel streets called Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo; the variant to the Zoning Plan of 1931 decided to demolish it, with the aim of obtaining “an entrance to the largest temple of Christianity worthy of the city, in place of the very poor entrance to the villages“.
The architects Piacentini and Spaccarelli received the assignment for the demolition of the buildings and the construction of via della Conciliazione so named following the Lateran Pacts of 11 February 1929 which sanctioned the reconciliation between the Italian State and the Holy See.

What the seventeenth-century architects had designed and built (including Gian Lorenzo Bernini) was canceled: back then you arrived at the Basilica passing through the alleys of the Spina di Borgo and suddenly found yourself in front of the grandeur of the square and the Basilica of St. to be amazed and surprised.

Today the surprise effect is attenuated, if not canceled, because the Basilica and the Piazza are immediately visible just as if we were looking at a postcard.

To make room for via della Conciliazione many of the ancient buildings of the district were demolished, also removing evidence of medieval Rome that have practically disappeared throughout the city, some monumental fountains were repositioned elsewhere.

The works started in 1936, were suspended during the Second World War and ended in time for the 1950 Jubilee.