Regarding the Borgo Pio: An Architectural View of a Renaissance Street in Rome

The Via di Borgo Pio is a teeming and colorful street just outside the Vatican, running between Saint Peter's Basilica and the ancient tomb of Hadrian, now called the Castel Sant' Angelo. The district has been at the center of Rome's life for millennia and has been the setting for many dramas, including one of Nero's revels in which hundreds of Christians were crucified or burned. Born of papal fiat in 1562, it has retained its essential character ever since as a vital, merchant-class enclave of the city. However, modern pressures on the district and a gentrification of aging structures are now forcing dislocations of families and businesses. Thus, the Borgo Pio could soon lose its historic character as a self-sustaining quarter.
In documenting the street's history, life, and architecture with sensitive drawings and perceptive narrative, Sutherland has attempted to capture the spirit of the street before its inevitable change. Regarding the Borgo Pio includes pencil renderings of doorways and decorative elements and a set of detailed elevation sketches of all the street's buildings made on the spot in the summer of 1992. Two drawings done in the style of sixteenth-century woodcuts are exceptional pieces of artwork. Several maps locate the district within Rome and illustrate how the borgo changed over the centuries, and an appendix contains an inventory of the street's addresses and describes the types of businesses found there.

Martha Sutherland is associate professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.