The Forum
Title
Description
Before the medieval period, the Forum was a popular stop on processions of all kinds, especially funerals. Emperors and popes would be paraded through the arches before reaching their final resting places. While heavily associated with a romanticized imperial Rome, the main attraction of the Forum to medieval papal processions was the open space that could accommodate a more significant number of people.
The streets of medieval Rome were tight and ill-suited for hosting crowds. As liturgy developed over the medieval period, the pope found himself responsible for addressing the people of the city no less than six times during the procession, each at a location of liturgical or historical significance. In order to do so, the procession needed space for the masses to congregate, and thus the Forum was used.
Even before the medieval period, the Forum was not considered to be an ideal location for a processional stop. Basilicas and houses congested the entrances to the space, which limited the visual aspect of the liturgy to the surrounding streets. Between the 9th and 14th century, the population of Tiber bend more than tripled, and processional routes began to favor the area.
After the popes’ return from Avignon in the 14th century, the church began to invest heavily in processional infrastructure near the Tiber bend and the Vatican, reconfiguring city spaces to open up wide, straight roads that allowed processions more spatial freedom. Rather than continuing to use the Forum, popes instead chose to address the people in the piazzas in front of major churches and other landmarks within these redesigned processional spaces.
Creator
Edited by Ella Parke (2027) and Julia Tassava (2026)
Source
Bauman, Lisa Passaglia. The Rhetoric of Power: Della Rovere Palaces and Processional Routes in Late Fifteenth Century Rome. (New York, Italica Press, 2015), 73.
Carver, Catherine. As the Bells Toll: Parish Proximity in Medieval Rome. (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK; Rochester, NY, USA: Boydell and Brewer, 2017), 196.
Identifier
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Description
Before the medieval period, the Forum was a popular stop on processions of all kinds, especially funerals. Emperors and popes would be paraded through the arches before reaching their final resting places. While heavily associated with a romanticized imperial Rome, the main attraction of the Forum to medieval papal processions was the open space that could accommodate a more significant number of people.
The streets of medieval Rome were tight and ill-suited for hosting crowds. As liturgy developed over the medieval period, the pope found himself responsible for addressing the people of the city no less than six times during the procession, each at a location of liturgical or historical significance. In order to do so, the procession needed space for the masses to congregate, and thus the Forum was used.
Even before the medieval period, the Forum was not considered to be an ideal location for a processional stop. Basilicas and houses congested the entrances to the space, which limited the visual aspect of the liturgy to the surrounding streets. Between the 9th and 14th century, the population of Tiber bend more than tripled, and processional routes began to favor the area.
After the popes’ return from Avignon in the 14th century, the church began to invest heavily in processional infrastructure near the Tiber bend and the Vatican, reconfiguring city spaces to open up wide, straight roads that allowed processions more spatial freedom. Rather than continuing to use the Forum, popes instead chose to address the people in the piazzas in front of major churches and other landmarks within these redesigned processional spaces.
Creator
Finn Tierney (2020)Edited by Ella Parke (2027) and Julia Tassava (2026)
Coverage
1300sSource
Favro, Diane, and Christopher Johanson. "Death in Motion: Funeral Processions in the Roman Forum." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 69, no. 1 (2010): 12-37.Bauman, Lisa Passaglia. The Rhetoric of Power: Della Rovere Palaces and Processional Routes in Late Fifteenth Century Rome. (New York, Italica Press, 2015), 73.
Carver, Catherine. As the Bells Toll: Parish Proximity in Medieval Rome. (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK; Rochester, NY, USA: Boydell and Brewer, 2017), 196.