After the sack of Rome in 1527 the city had slowly taken with the reconstruction first and then new construction of public buildings, especially churches, convents, hospices, with the contribution of the great Catholic countries, especially France and Spain, which competed in asserting their presence in the Eternal City.
Goethe, Mozart, Stendhal, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Shelley, Keats, Lord Byron, along with thousands of less famous of the pilgrims' trip to Italy, "so popular in the Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism, came to visit Rome, Caput Mundi for centuries and defense of Christianity for many. The end point was through the Via Cassia, Flaminia and Porta del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna own.
The hotels, inns and taverns, stables for horses, parking for coaches and carriages employers (the name says nothing "because of Coaches"?), The coffee shops, barbers and then, pharmacists, shoemakers, tourist guides, "Cicero", scribes, charlatans and shops of every kind, settled quickly into the area of \u200b\u200bPiazza di Spagna. The wealthy travelers of the time were a boon to many new craft and business initiatives.
Prostitutes were among the first to operate in the area, attracted by two primary considerations. The passengers were almost all male, and often stay for long. In addition, and especially since the end of '600, the area enjoyed the extra-territorial jurisdiction in favor of the English crown.
An entire neighborhood was under the jurisdiction and protection of Spain, who had right to exclude any interference administrative and police forces of the Church. In practice it was a free zone for all economic activity, including prostitution. Spain, although they may have with his troops to police, was limited to inspection of his delegation and the large complex (church and home) of the Discalced Trinitarians, also owned. But the "English Quarter" covers a large district in the middle of the 700 that included the English Steps, Piazza Mignanelli the current building, Via Condotti, Via della Mercede, Via Mario de 'Fiori, Via Capo le Case, Via Gregoriana The last stretch of Via Felice (now Sistina), Piazza Trinita dei Monti, Via Vittoria, Via della Croce, via Bocca di Leone, via Frattina. L'area contava alcune migliaia di abitanti. I confini furono codificati, come rivela uno studio di Alessandra Anselmi, in una mappa disegnata dall’architetto Antonio Canevari nel 1725 ( v. in basso ). Gli accordi raggiunti tra Spagna e Papato furono faticosi e contrastati, per la concorrenza della Francia che accampava analoghi diritti. Ovviamente i vari Papi mai giunsero ad un protocollo ufficiale, che avrebbe comportato nientemeno che la cessione a una potenza straniera di una parte della città. Tutto era stabilito alla stregua di un gentleman agreement . Ma tant’è, la Spagna di fatto esercitava il potere sulla sua giurisdizione, seppure con molta tolleranza verso tutte quelle activities that made "her" the most cosmopolitan and friendly neighborhood of Rome.
One step back, how would the Belli. Misogynist and sexist society in Rome in the Pope-King, relegated to the role of the woman to wife and mother, a nun or a whore. Were very few professions in which a woman could try: in practice, the seamstress, the "scuffiara" (artisan of headphones and women's hats) and the few that need attended to the wives of the gentry. Forget the perpetual priests and pastors, but many of them had a double, ambiguous, role of women "do everything". The totality of the other professions was restricted to males, even the role of women in representations theater and music (well, 'just men no: it was the era of the castrati, who sang and appeared as women on stage and in the Sistine Chapel). The women rebels who refused to submit to the prevailing machismo did not have many chances: either whores or witches, sorcerers. But it was very dangerous profession: there was the fire, after a long process of the Holy Inquisition.
Prostitution, however, did not lead to the stake, and made (and makes) the good. It was the only alternative, always illegal but often tolerated, for women who were unable or unwilling to find a husband-master. It 's true that the Cardinal Vicar supervision of customs, "to review the sleeping whores," as Belli said, but there was nothing in the English quarter.
Prostitution in Rome was a reality so established that there was a hospital, the San Rocco, for giving birth outside of marriage, and another, the San Gallicano, in widespread use for the treatment of venereal diseases. The "French disease" or syphilis, was the most widespread and dangerous. Not to mention the hospice for the recovery of "missing women" in Ladders, as a matter of Lungara [will not, by chance, the current House of Women, the seat of feminists, which is accessed by a striking double staircase? Nemesis would be a nice ... Ed] and the Cardinal Vicar who was watching over everything.
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The steps of Trinita dei Monti was built and designed by Francesco De Sanctis with a bequest of 20,000 crowns made in 1655 to Minims of St. Francis of Paola by a French nobleman, Etienne Gueffier, who had held senior embassy of France in Rome. It 's interesting to note that these monks had kept the money in hand for nearly three quarters of a century before releasing them for the construction of the staircase, at the insistence of Pope Clement XI. The square was
diplomatic battleground between Spain and France. In fact, in the '600 north towards Porta Flaminia, was "Square of France", and that which is overlooked by the English embassy, \u200b\u200bnow Piazza Mignanelli was square Spain. It was the influence of Isabella Farnese, wife of King Philip V of Spain, together with the powerful ambassador Cardinal Trojano Acquaviva of Aragon, whose secretary Giacomo Casanova liked to call "man in Rome is worth more than 'the Pope," to tip the scales in favor of English jurisdiction, relegating the French zone in the top of the famous scalinata.Nel during these skirmishes of diplomacy, money orders Spain even the possibility of closing the staircase with a coup-based chains and padlocks.
Even before the construction of Trinità dei Monti, which was inaugurated by the Pope in 1725, along the unstable slope with trees which connected the French church of San Francesco Fathers minimum da Paola (in alto) con la piazza della berniniana Barcaccia e col quartiere spagnolo (in basso), esistevano alcune casupole abitate da donne che praticavano la prostituzione, come documentano le proteste dei preti francesi agli inizi del ‘700, e come risulta da una stampa dell’epoca.
Ed ecco il sonetto del Belli, celebrativo dell’editto che vietava alle prostitute di adescare i clienti stando affacciate alla finestra appoggiate ad un esplicito cuscino, sovente decorato di merletti in modo vistoso, come avveniva senza ritegno nel quartiere di Piazza di Spagna. Strano, però, quello che non si può fare con le prostitute si può fare impunemente con la moglie, nota sarcasticamente il Belli:
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GIURISDIZZIONE
LA is a great rascal who futtuto iff
complaining of things PPIU mmejjo der Government.
What! cor ner de Rome de cuel'inferno
whores de Plaza de Spain?!
S'aveva to see 'na sow bitch
of istat'e utunno pprimaver'e and winter
cquer zante on the pillow, in a zempiterno
cchiamà cojjoni them to the bonanza? They did
bbenone: Armance now
fucks eg if the houses in the minor key, and
CCOR your neighbor as yourself. Mo
tAll if some ffa CCOR zu 'which was about
co cquella Zignore distinguish yourself, and ar
piuppiú cce cquarche bbastardo little came out.
Rome, December 5, 1832
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version. It 's a great fucking bastard who complains of the best measures of the government. But how, in the heart of Rome hell whores of the English Steps? You had to see a sow sordid summer, autumn, winter and spring, on that holy pillow all the time, to call the customer to the bonanza? The government has done just fine, at least now you have sex for the holiday quietly with your neighbor as yourself. Now you can do everything with due respect to your wife, and at most will come out of some bastard.
whores But despite edicts and proclamations, are quietly stay in the former "English zone" until recently. In fact, we put the house. Who does not remember, among the old Romans, "case closed", hypocritically also called "tolerance", in Via della Vite, via Belsiana, via Capo le Case, Via Mario de 'Fiori, Via Borgognona (where was the " Georgina, known meeting place for fascist) and all the way around? The Merlin Law that closed the "Casino" in 1958.
IMAGES (click to enlarge ). 1. The wooded slope of Trinita dei Monti before the construction of the staircase, complete with houses of prostitutes (drawing prob. G. Maggi, 1600 ca.). 2. Prostitutes erano spesso alla finestra. Doppiamente obbligato, perciò, il riferimento al dipinto "Donne alla finestra" dello spagnolo Murillo. 3. La fontana della Barcaccia e la selvaggia salita di Trinità dei Monti (dis. prob. di GB.Falda, 1676). 4. La mappa del "quartiere spagnolo" (Canevari 1725), secondo lo studio di A.Anselmi ( Il quartiere dell’Ambasciata di Spagna a Roma, in "La città italiana e i luoghi degli stranieri. XIV-XVIII secolo", a cura di D.Calabi e P.Lanaro, Laterza 1998, pp.206-221). In seguito l'area fu ingrandita fino ad arrivare al Corso, proprio per la costruzione del complesso extraterritoriale spagnolo dei Trinitari Scalzi (iniziata nel 1731-32), with the approval of the competent "master of the streets" arch.Cipriani.