The Spanish Steps, Rome, Italy

Can a flight of steps be considered a building?  Yes, if you define "building" as part of the built environment and not just a structure with four walls and a roof.  If bridges can be "buildings," steps can too.  Especially when we're talking about the Scalla di Spagne, or Spanish Steps, of Rome, the widest staircase in Europe and a masterpiece of baroque design.
      Why are they called "Spanish?"  During the 17th century, Spain maintained an embassy by the piazza now at the foot of the steps.  The piazza became known as the Piazza di Spagne, the Spanish Piazza.

Trinita dei Monti

   Rome, as both tourists and visitors will attest, is a city of hills.  Sometimes steep hills.  High on a hill overlooking the Piazza di Spagne sits the Trinita dei Monti, the Church of the Trinity on the Mount.   Built by the French in the sixteenth century on a former vineyard, the Tinita dei Monti is an architectural gem in its own right.   The twin bell towers were added to the facade in the seventeenth century, creating the view from the  we still see looking up from the piazza today. (Interestingly, the church and the land surrounding it remain French property.  Two clocks, one on each bell tower, tell the time in Rome and Paris, respectively.)

Design by di Santis

For over a hundred years getting from the Piazza di Spagne to the Trinita de Monte and back again meant traveling a steep path along a rough, wooded hill.   Once more the French "stepped" in and offered to finance the construction of stone steps.  The original French plans called for an enormous statue of King Louis XIV, France's great "Sun King," astride a horse as the focal point of the steps.  Fortunately, at least for Romans, most of the people involved in the original planning, including Louis XIV himself, had died by the time the Italian architects Alessandro Specchi and Francesco di Sanctis won the commission to build the steps in 1717.  Di Santis had submitted the winning design to the architectural competition, though Specchi, the better known of the two, received most of the credit.

Engraving by Pinini, 1756

    Di Santis based his design on the terraced gardens popular in country estates.  A total of 138 steps rose in tiers from the piazza to the entrance of the church. The finished staircase was actually a bit off center from the church towers, which gave it an even more graceful appearance, as can be seen in the engraving by Giovanni Panini, made around 1756, about thirty years after the steps had been completed.  Officially, the steps commemorated a peace treaty between Spain and France. Unofficially, they became the place for Romans and visitors to meet and greet for generations.  The neighborhood bordering the steps was a favorite haunt of writers and artists. One of Romes oldest coffee shops, the Antico Cafe Greco, opened beside the steps in 1760 and is still going strong.

Keats-Shelley House

    Among the cafe's more renowned literary patrons was the English poet John Keats, who spent the last days of his young life in a house right on the east side of the steps.  He died there at the age of 25 in 1821. In the early 20th century his former residence became the Keats-Shelley Memorial House, a museum devoted to Keats, his friend Percy Busby Shelley, and other romantic poets.  Today it possesses one of the largest collections of manuscripts and letters devoted to English romanticism in the world.  What better location for such an collection than one of the most romantic locations in one of the world's most romantic cities?

Fountain of the Boat

And speaking of romance, no description of the Scala di Spagne can end without including a bit about the Fontana della Barcaccia, the Fountain of the Boat, located right at the foot of steps.  Designed by Pietro Bernini and his illustrious son Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the fountain predates the steps by about 90 years; it was completed in 1627.  The lyrical shape blends in so perfectly, though, it almost seems as if the two were made for one another.  According to legend, the fountain commemorated the story of a boat that was carried up to the piazza when the Tiber River flooded in 1598.  After the waters receded, Romans saw the abandoned boat as a symbol of God's mercy and hope for a better day.  There's also the theory the Berninis chose the sunken boat motif because the low water pressure in the area would not support the more spectacular jets of water that distinguished some of the city's larger fountains.  No matter.  The Fontana della Barcaccia may not be one of Rome's biggest fountains, but it is one of the most beloved.
  Every spring the steps are decorated with pots of flowers to welcome the season.  Needless to say, they are packed with people too. Few historic sites get such rigorous daily use.  The Spanish Steps remind us that we don't always have to look up to see great architecture.  Sometimes it is right beneath our feet. 

Links:
You can learn more about the Spanish Steps from Great Buildings on Line or watch a panoramic video at Italy Guides. The Keats-Shelley House has an online tour of the museum as well as some e-cards featuring the house and the Spanish Steps.  If you want to read more about Gian Lorenzo Bernini, this biography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will give you a start.

Photo Credits:
Wiki Media Commons
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Library of Art and Archeology, Rome