The story of this place
Piazza Navona preserves the exact outline of the Stadium of Domitian, built around AD 86 for athletic contests; the surrounding buildings trace its ancient racing track, and remnants survive below street level. In the 17th century it became the showcase of Baroque Rome. Bernini's dramatic Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651), personifying the Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Río de la Plata around an Egyptian obelisk, faces the church of Sant'Agnese by his rival Borromini. Legend claims Bernini's Nile figure shields its eyes in disdain from Borromini's facade—a myth, since the fountain came first. Once flooded in summer for mock naval games, the piazza remains one of Rome's liveliest gathering places.