Few places in the world tell so many centuries at a glance. Beneath Navona49 lies the first masonry stadium of ancient Rome, above which the square has changed skin a thousand times: Renaissance market, Baroque drawing room, summer lake, today's living stage. A timeline two thousand years long — and you sleep on top of it.
In AD 86 emperor Domitian inaugurated, in the Campus Martius, the first and only masonry stadium of ancient Rome. 265 metres long, 106 wide, with a curve to the north and a straight side to the south, it could hold up to 30,000 spectators. It was built to host the Certamen Capitolinum, the five-yearly games in honour of Jupiter, modelled on the Greek Olympics: athletics, wrestling, boxing and pankration, as well as poetry and music.
The games were called agones: from this word, through the centuries, came the name Navona.
With the fall of the Empire, the games died out and the stadium fell into disuse. For centuries its travertine blocks and bricks were quarried away to build churches and palaces across medieval Rome. The stadium vanished from sight, but its shape stayed carved into the ground: new buildings rose over the seats and arcades, following its long, unmistakable perimeter.
At the end of the 15th century, under Pope Sixtus IV, Rome's main market was moved from the Capitoline Hill to the space of the ancient stadium. The piazza officially came to life: stalls, carts, voices. For the first time in a thousand years, the agon became again a place of gathering at the heart of the city.
Under Innocent X (1644–55), the Pamphili family turned Piazza Navona into one of the masterpieces of Roman Baroque. Palazzo Pamphili rose on the square; at the centre, in 1651, Gian Lorenzo Bernini unveiled the Fountain of the Four Rivers, crowned by Domitian's obelisk. A year later the first stone of Sant'Agnese in Agone was laid (Rainaldi, Borromini): the square became the one the world knows.
For over two centuries, every Saturday and Sunday in August, Piazza Navona turned into a lake. The fountain drains were closed, water flooded the gently concave paving designed by Innocent X, and Romans cooled off in style: noblemen's carriages wading through the water, boys diving, ladies and cardinals partying in the loggias above.
A beloved tradition, immortalised by Pannini and Vasi, which lasted until 1866 when the paving was levelled.
Since 1872, on the night between January 5th and 6th, Piazza Navona turns into the great Befana fair. The fair — until 1871 held in nearby piazza Sant'Eustachio — was moved here once the square received its new paving and gas lamps: along the central walkway, 120 identical wooden stalls with zinc roofs lined up. The piazza became a kaleidoscope of lights, voices and sweets.
Every Epiphany since, around Bernini's fountain, the stalls of toys, candies and stockings are back, with toffee apples, candy floss and the carousel of horses. It is the feast Romans give to their children — and it has been colouring the square beneath your windows for more than 150 years.
Staying in Befana: sleeping here means living the feast from inside, when the piazza belongs to the Romans again.
Today Piazza Navona is the world's Baroque drawing room, crossed by millions of footsteps every year: the Christmas market, the Befana fair on January 6th, summer evenings beneath the Fountain of the Four Rivers. Navona49 sits inside a Renaissance palazzo, restored many times over the centuries, built exactly above the Stadium of Domitian. On your way up to the suites, from the stairwell window beside the elevator, you can look down onto the ruins of the ancient stadium. A timeline two thousand years long — and you cross all of it in one flight of stairs.
On the left, the exact spot where Navona49 stands today, at the time of the imperial stadium. On the right, the same spot today: the square the world knows.
Archaeological overlay: the Stadium of Domitian and Piazza Navona today.
Reconstructions, prints and historical views of Piazza Navona — © respective authors. Shown for illustrative and historical purposes.
From the window of Navona49's elevator hall you meet the curve of an era: the stones of the ancient stadium, preserved beneath street level, still speak the language of imperial Rome.
The suites of Navona49 welcome you above ancient Rome's stadium, overlooking the most beautiful square in the city.
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