Very few know that a Piazza Navona existed a real artificial lake: No warship, however, nor gladiators in action, only a festive crowd of popular and nobles, gathered to enjoy an unusual show in the heart of Rome. Was Pope Innocenzo Xin the seventeenth century, to want to transform the square into a small artificial lake, temporarily closing the scoli of the fountains. The goal was to offer the Romans a moment of collective entertainment, between splashes of water and summer laughter. Moreover, that the Roman people liked to flood squares and amphitheatri is certainly not new: just think of the famous naumachie of antiquity, when even the Colosseum was filled with water to recall epic naval battles.
The curious gimmick of creating a small lake in the heart of Baroque Rome was conceived for the first time in 1652. During the weekend of Augustthe discharges of the Fontane d Piazza Navona were blocked on the order of papal officials allowing the water to escape from their respective tanks and to flood the surrounding pavement. For some time now the square had become one of the most important meeting places of the eternal city. The choice of the location was not in fact random: in addition to the presence of the fountains, which guaranteed the necessary water, the very conformation of the square, narrow, elongated and with a concave bottom (now no longer visible), lent itself perfectly to temporary flooding. This particular form was inherited from the ancient stadium of Domitian, built in the imperial era.
Needless to say, such an idea had an immediate and disruptive success. On the other hand, the thought is certainly visionary and recalls, after all, many events immersive Modern designed to entertain and surprise. There are several cases in which the squares of the big cities host participatory works of art, light shows and water games, not to mention the installations made with the aim of temporarily changing the perception of a public space.
In addition, the “Lake of Piazza Navona” attracted citizens of all social backgrounds: the people He could only appreciate such an event to escape from the concerns of everyday life, and he was happy to take a moment to wet his feet, refresh himself and enjoy the occasion between splashes, games and laughter. There nobilityon the other hand, literally competed to flaunt luxury and elegance: carriages prepared for the event crossed the shallow water, highlighting themselves often accompanied by the servants and the music of the artists.
According to the sources, real boats would have sailed the squareand not too attentive participants would even be drowned in the water from the fountains. Today we know that rumors and gossip fueled the fame of this particular party and magnified the anecdotes up to transforms into legend. In fact, it is likely that water throughout the square has never exceeded some dozen centimeters of depth.
The event was repeated in all months of August for the following decades, exceeding an overall duration of over a century. It underwent only a few short interruptions for the concern that such a gimmick could favor the circulation of viruses and bacteria originating dangerous epidemics in the city, and was definitively suspended around the second half of the nineteenth century.
