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Villa publica

Ancient Roman building and structure stubsAncient Roman buildings and structures in RomeRoman villa

The Villa publica was a public building in ancient Rome, which served as the censors’ base of operation. It was erected on the Campus Martius in 435 BC. According to Livy, the first census was compiled there the year it was built. In 194 BC, the building, or buildings, was restored and enlarged. Villa publica meant "House of the People" and although its location is unknown (it has been conjectured that it actually constituted a series of buildings near the Circus Flaminius), it is known from ancient sources that its area was wide, and that, at one point, most likely following further renovations in 34 BC, a large wall was built around it. In addition to holding the censors’ records and acting as the censors’ base of operations, the Villa publica also served as a place where foreign ambassadors were greeted, where generals waited to hear if they would be granted a triumph, and it also acted as a base for army levies.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Villa publica (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Villa publica
Via del Piè di Marmo, Rome Municipio Roma I

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N 41.8975 ° E 12.4791 °
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Via del Piè di Marmo
00186 Rome, Municipio Roma I
Lazio, Italy
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Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Santa Maria sopra Minerva is one of the major churches of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers (better known as the Dominicans) in Rome, Italy. The church's name derives from the fact that the first Christian church structure on the site was built directly over (Italian: sopra) the ruins or foundations of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, which had been erroneously ascribed to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva (possibly due to interpretatio romana). The church is located in Piazza della Minerva one block behind the Pantheon in the Pigna rione of Rome within the ancient district known as the Campus Martius. The present church and disposition of surrounding structures is visible in a detail from the Nolli Map of 1748. While many other medieval churches in Rome have been given Baroque makeovers that cover Gothic structures, the Minerva is the only extant example of original Gothic architecture church building in Rome. Behind a restrained Renaissance style façade the Gothic interior features arched vaulting that was painted blue with gilded stars and trimmed with brilliant red ribbing in a 19th-century Neo-Gothic restoration. The church and adjoining convent served at various times throughout its history as the Dominican Order's headquarters. Today the headquarters have been re-established in their original location at the Roman convent of Santa Sabina. The titulus of Sanctae Mariae supra Minervam was conferred on 28 June 2018 to Cardinal António Marto.