Velabrum

Piazza Bocca della Verità (Italian: Square of the Mouth of Truth) is a square between Via Luigi Petroselli and Via della Greca in Rome (Italy), in the rione Ripa. The square lies in the ancient area of the Forum Boarium, just in front of the Tiber Island; it takes its name from the Bocca della Verità (Italian: Mouth of Truth), placed under the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Besides the church, dating back to the late Middle Ages, the square houses the Arcus Argentariorum, the Arch of Janus, the Temple of Hercules Victor and the Temple of Portunus, a deity related to the ancient river harbour. The fountain in front of the two temples, called Fountain of the Tritons, realised by Carlo Bizzaccheri under commission of Pope Clement XI, was erected in the square in 1715; it has an octagonal basis and portrays two tritons supporting a shell from which the water springs. The square was the place where, until 1868, the sentences of death were executed.

San Giovanni Decollato (the Beheaded John the Baptist) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, sited on via di San Giovanni Decollato in the Ripa rione.

The Forum Boarium (Classical Latin: [ˈfɔɾʊ̃ˑ boˈäːɾiʊm], Italian: Foro Boario) was the cattle forum venalium of ancient Rome. It was located on a level piece of land near the Tiber between the Capitoline, the Palatine and Aventine hills. As the site of the original docks of Rome (Portus Tiberinus), the Forum Boarium experienced intense commercial activity. The Forum Boarium was the site of the first gladiatorial contest at Rome which took place in 264 BC as part of aristocratic funerary ritual—a munus or funeral gift for the dead. Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva put on a gladiatorial combat in honor of their deceased father with three pairs of gladiators. The site was also a religious centre housing the Temple of Hercules Victor, the Temple of Portunus (Temple of Fortuna Virilis), and the massive 6th or 5th century BC Great Altar of Hercules.

The Great Altar of Unconquered Hercules (Latin: Herculis Invicti Ara Maxima) stood in the Forum Boarium of ancient Rome. It was the earliest cult-centre of Hercules in Rome, predating the circular Temple of Hercules Victor. Roman tradition made the spot the site where Hercules slew Cacus and ascribed to Evander of Pallene its erection. Virgil's Aeneid tells of Evander attributing the original creation of the Ara Maxima to Potitius and the Pinarii.The original altar burned in the Great Fire of Rome, 64 CE, but was rebuilt and still stood in the fourth century. A tentative identification of a tufa platform in the crypt of Santa Maria in Cosmedin with the foundation of the altar has been made by Filippo Coarelli and other archaeologists.Various references, with Varro as their source, justified the exclusion of women from ceremonies here, or of partaking in the sacrificial meats. The rites at the Ara Maxima were unique within the cult of Hercules in that they were performed ritu Graeco, with heads uncovered.

The Arch of Janus is the only quadrifrons triumphal arch preserved in Rome. It was set up at a crossroads at the northeastern limit of the Forum Boarium, close to the Velabrum, over the Cloaca Maxima drain that went from the Forum to the River Tiber. It was built in the early 4th century CE, using spolia, i.e. material from earlier buildings, including bricks, together with pottery shards, and was covered with white marble, also from earlier buildings. The exact significance of the arch is poorly understood: it is thought to have been a boundary marker rather than a triumphal arch. An alternative view is that it was built to provide shelter for the traders at the Forum Boarium cattle market. Some researchers believe it was dedicated to Constantine I or Constantius II and was known as the Arch of the deified Constantine. It is 16 meters high and 12 meters wide. Each pier of the arch has two rows of three niches. It seems logical that statues would have filled these 48 niches but none has been identified. The stone at the apex of the central arch on the north side is thought to depict Minerva, although others believe it may be Palladium. Its current name probably dates from the Renaissance or later, and was not used to describe it in classical antiquity. The name is derived from the structure's four-fronted, four-arched configuration. The ancient Roman god Janus (Ianus Quadrifons), was sometimes depicted with four faces and there are Janus-related structures mentioned in historic descriptions of ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages, the Frangipane family transformed the building into a fortress, and so it survived intact until 1830. Then, the attic and top were torn down because they were erroneously believed to not belong to the original structure. However, there is a staircase within the north-west pier which would have given access to this top floor. Iron pins originally held together the marble blocks but were removed in the Middle Ages, leading to the monument's present pock-marked look. Fragments of the dedicatory inscription are still preserved inside the nearby church of San Giorgio in Velabro. The arch has not been accessible to the public since the explosion of a bomb in front of San Giorgio in Velabro, on the night of 27 July 1993. It is the one monument of the Forum Boarium that remains unrestored. The Arch of Malborghetto, just outside Rome, also includes the remnants of a former Roman quadrifons arch.

The Fountain of the Tritons (Italian: Fontana dei Tritoni) is a fountain in Rome (Italy), Piazza Bocca della Verità, in front of the basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. This fountain should be distinguished from the similarly named nearby Triton Fountain (Fontana del Tritone) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in the Piazza Barberini, with only a single Triton. The building, starting from 1610, of the last Roman aqueduct, the Acqua Paola, didn't move to the background the two aqueducts built just a few years before (the Aqua Virgo in 1570 and the Acqua Felice in 1587), which gave the possibility to erect new fountains on the branches that guaranteed a more widespread distribution of water in the whole town. A secondary branch of the Acqua Felice reached the area south of the Tiber Island: here, between ancient and middle-age monuments (the Arcus Argentariorum, the Arch of Janus, the Temple of Hercules Victor, the Temple of Portunus and the basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin) Pope Clement XI ordered the construction of a monument in his own memory. It is not so clear indeed why the pontiff chose to erect a fountain in an area that was scarcely inhabited, broken-grounded and subject to the floods of river Tiber. In fact, its fulfillment raised many criticisms for the location believed to be unhappy. The fountain was completed in 1715 by architect Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri, during the works for the accommodation of the square in front of the basilica. The whole travertine structure is placed on a circular step (delimited by 16 little columns joined by a grating), within which the design of the main basin represents an octagon with concave sides, or rather the eight-tips star that was the heraldic symbol of the family of the Pope, the Albanis). In the centre there is a group of rocks (an element that had become popular after the success of the fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) with bushes on which two Tritons (due to Francesco Moratti) are knelt with clinged tails and raised arms, sustaining on their shoulders a big oyster shell serving as upper basin. Between the two Tritons there is the coat of arms of the pontiff. Four mascarons formerly dumped water into the main basin; they were removed in the 19th century, probably due to the scarcity of the incoming water, that could have left them dry. In fact the fountain has been without water for a long time, but the hydric provision, though quite scarce, has been restored. The last restorations date back to 1994-1995 and 2010.

The Temple of Portunus (Italian: Tempio di Portuno) or Temple of Fortuna Virilis ("manly fortune") is a Roman temple in Rome, Italy, one of the best preserved of all Roman temples. Its dedication remains unclear, as ancient sources mention several temples in this area of Rome, without saying enough to make it clear which this is. It was called the Temple of Fortuna Virilis from the Renaissance, and remains better known by this name. If dedicated to Portunus, the god of keys, doors and livestock, and so granaries, it is the main temple dedicated to the god in the city.

The Arcus Argentariorum (Latin: Arch of the Money-Changers; in Italian: Arco degli Argentari), is an ancient Roman arch that was partly incorporated in the seventh century into the western wall of the nearby church of San Giorgio al Velabro in Rome, Italy.

The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin or de Schola Graeca) is a minor basilica church in Rome, Italy. It is located in the rione of Ripa.

The Mouth of Truth (Italian: Bocca della Verità [ˈbokka della veriˈta]) is a marble mask in Rome, Italy, which stands against the left wall of the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church, at the Piazza della Bocca della Verità, the site of the ancient Forum Boarium (the ancient cattle market). According to enduring medieval legend, it will bite off the hand of any liar who places their hand in its mouth, or, alternatively, any who utters a lie while their hand is in the mouth. It still attracts many visitors who audaciously insert their hands. The massive marble mask weighs about 1300 kg (2800 lbs) and probably depicts the face of the sea titan god Oceanus. The eyes, nostrils and mouth are open. Historians aren't quite certain what the original purpose of the disc was. It was possibly used as a drain cover in the nearby Temple of Hercules Victor, which had an oculus—a round open space in the middle of the roof, similar to that of the Pantheon. Hence, it could rain inside. It is also thought that cattle merchants used it to drain the blood of cattle sacrificed to the god Hercules. In the thirteenth century the disc was probably removed from the temple and placed against the wall of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin. In the seventeenth century it eventually moved to its current location inside the portico of the church.

The Temple of Hercules Victor ('Hercules the Winner') (Italian: Tempio di Ercole Vincitore) or Hercules Olivarius ((Hercules the Olive Branch Bearear) is a Roman temple in Piazza Bocca della Verità in the area of the Forum Boarium near the Tiber in Rome. It is a tholosa round temple of Greek 'peripteral' design completely surrounded by a colonnade. This layout caused it to be mistaken for a temple of Vesta until it was correctly identified by Napoleon's Prefect of Rome, Camille de Tournon.Despite (or perhaps due to) the Forum Boarium's role as the cattle-market for ancient Rome, the Temple of Hercules is the subject of a folk belief claiming that neither flies nor dogs will enter the holy place. The temple is the earliest surviving marble building in Rome. The Hercules Temple of Victor is also the only surviving sacred temple in ancient Rome that is made of Greek marble. Today it remains unsolved who this temple was dedicated to and for what purpose.

San Giorgio in Velabro is a church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. George. The church is located next to the Arch of Janus in the rione of Ripa in the ancient Roman Velabrum. According to the founding legend of Rome, the church was built where Roman history began: it is near here that the mythical she-wolf found the mythical babies, Romulus and Remus. The façade of the church encroaches upon and incorporates the ancient Arcus Argentariorum. San Giorgio in Velabro is the station church for the first Thursday in Lent.