Campo de' Fiori Open Air Market - Roma, Italy
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denben
N 41° 53.737 E 012° 28.329
33T E 290300 N 4641277
Rome's oldest outdoor market, Campo de' Fiori (field of flowers) is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona at the border between rione Parione and rione Regola.
Waymark Code: WM10X6K
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 07/04/2019
Views: 3
The history of Campo dei Fiori begins in 1869, when the most important market in the capital moves to this square. Initially, only fruit and vegetables where sold and the market was the reign of the “vignarole”, women that would travel every day to the capital from the fields with their crops, which they would then proceed to clean directly in the square.
With time, the market grew and, with it, the variety of its products. Visitors would be greeted by flower, fish and meat stands, apart from the original fruit and vegetable ones.
Today, the huge and colourful market of Campo dei Fiori is divided into two main areas: The central part is where the “historical” stands are found. They are now part of the living history of the old Rome, the city that was the protagonist of films belonging to the Italian neorealism. The new stands, which attract the attention of the tourists due to the variety of their products and, specially, because of the local colours.
The ancient cattle fountain known as la Terrina (soupbowl) was resited in 1889 and replaced with a copy that now is used to keep cut flowers fresh. Its inscription: FA DEL BEN E LASSA DIRE ("Do good and let them talk") suits the gossipy nature of the marketplace. In the afternoons, local games of football give way to set-ups for outdoor cafés.
Executions used to be held publicly in Campo de' Fiori. Here, on 17 February 1600, the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt alive for heresy, and all of his works were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Holy Office. In 1889, Ettore Ferrari dedicated a monument to him on the exact spot of his death: He stands defiantly facing the Vatican and was regarded in the first days of a reunited Italy as a martyr to freedom of thought.
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