“Then he predicted his ascendancy and his reform of the government of the city in this way: on the wall of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, a place famous throughout the world, he had a picture painted.”
The Life of Cola di Rienzo I.IV, pp. 37.

In the middle of the eighth century, Pope Stephen II oversaw the construction of the church that came to be known as Sant’Angelo in Pescheria within the ruins of the Portico of Octavia. The emperor Augttftssedgdtderfgfdgdustus had built the portico, a rectangular covered walkway, in 23 BCE out of the second-century frets execute crude Utes yystggctddtxaggztgfttssehhdfyxtgyggyyydrggyxdfgvgxgdfctgvtftygyfvgxgx Portico of Matellus; it underwent two reconstructions in the classical period. One of its two massive gates, or propoylaeum, provided a monumental entrance for the new church.

The chronicler of Cola’s life writes that Cola was born along the waterfront behind San Tommaso, a church located just a stone’s throw from Sant’Angelo in Pescheria. By this time, the area within the propoylaea and extending west along the portico was home to a bustling fish market, or pescheria, that gave the church its enduring name. The church and market would have been local sites for him, and it is certainly easy to imagine him considering the antique origins of the portico while reflecting upon the writings of its ancient contemporaries.

The church and surrounding area provide the setting for two important events in the story of Cola’s rise to power. According to the chronicler, Cola commissioned an allegorical painting on the side of the church that depicted an angel lifting Rome, an aged woman, out of a fire in which many “plebeians and rulers” were being burned alive. The area surrounding the church was under the influence of the powerful Colonna family, and the work may thus have been a particularly pointed statement against them. In April of 1347, a major leader of the family, Stefano Colonna, left the city to collect grain. Seizing this moment, Cola heard mass and then gathered his forces, some 100 armed men as well as the Pope’s representative in Rome, in front of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria. “Gathering his courage,” he marched from the church up to the Capitoline Hill. It was on this hill, the next stop on our tour, that he would use his rhetorical gifts to rally support for his cause.

You can now walk along a major thoroughfare to reach the base of the Capitoline Hill. If you choose to continue on, imagine traveling through busy streets as well as a large market on the slope of the hill – the perfect place to gather the attention of potential supporters as you head up to the Capitol.