Via della Pilotta

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Via della Pilotta
Rome, September 2019

“However, this ‘secret garden’, concealed behind a high wall, is separated from the Palazzo Colonna by a street, Via della Pilotta. This name refers to a hall-game (as do the words patio and potions) and we know that this quiet street between naked walls - for the palace too turned its back on it - provided excellent opportunities tor games. The chronicler Valesio, mentions in 1740, that the game had become popular here again after an interval of forty years. Prince Colonna and his family naturally had to be able to get from their house to the garden without setting foot on the street and being molested by the sporting activities of young louts. For this reason, two bridges were built over the Via della Pilotta, one at each end of the palace; Don Filippo Colonna was given permission for this by Pope Innocent XII (1691-1700). lt was probably in the 1750's that two more bridges were added between the old ones. As can be seen from plate 92, which shows the one to the south at the entrance to the Via della Pilotta, the original arcades curved in a gentle arch and had a railing borne by balusters, all in straw—yellow travertine. The canting arms of the Colonna Family, a crowned column (colonna), can be seen carved on the plinth above the keystone of the arch.” (Rome: The Biography of Her Architecture from Bernini to Thorvaldsen by Christian Elling)