Tiber Island Isola Tiberina | |
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Coordinates | 41°53′27″N12°28′38″E / 41.8908°N 12.4772°E |
Location | |
Tiber Island (Italian : Isola Tiberina, Latin: Insula Tiberina) is the only river island in the part of the Tiber which runs through Rome. Tiber Island is located in the southern bend of the Tiber.
The island is boat-shaped, approximately 270 metres (890 feet) long and 67 metres (220 feet) wide, and has been connected with bridges to both sides of the river since antiquity. Being a seat of the ancient temple of Asclepius and later a hospital, the island is associated with medicine and healing. The Fatebenefratelli Hospital founded in the 16th century, and the church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola (on the Island) dating from the 10th century, are located on the island.
The island has been linked to the rest of Rome by two bridges since antiquity, and was once called Insula Inter-Duos-Pontes which means "the island between the two bridges". The Ponte Fabricio, the only original bridge in Rome, connects the island from the northeast to the Field of Mars in the rione Sant'Angelo (left bank). The Ponte Cestio, of which only some original parts survived, connects the island to Trastevere on the south (right bank).
There is a legend which says that after the fall of the hated tyrant Tarquinius Superbus (510 BC), the angry Romans threw his body into the Tiber. His body then settled onto the bottom where dirt and silt accumulated around it and eventually formed Tiber Island. Another version of the legend says that the people gathered up the wheat and grain of their despised ruler and threw it into the Tiber, where it eventually became the foundation of the island. [1]
Prior to the 3rd century BC, Roman use of the island is not mentioned by any sources. [2]
Tiber Island was once the location of an ancient temple to Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. In 293 BC, there was a great plague in Rome. Upon consulting the Sibyl, the Roman Senate was instructed to build a temple to Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing, and sent a delegation to Epidauros to obtain a statue of the deity. The delegation went on board a ship to sail out and obtain a statue. [1]
Following their belief system, they obtained a snake, closely associated and dear to the God, from a temple and put it on board their ship. It immediately curled itself around the ship's mast and this was deemed as a good sign by them. Upon their return up the Tiber river, the snake slithered off the ship and swam onto the island. Believing this was an incarnation of the God himself, a temple to Aesculapius was erected just where the serpent landed. [1]
The island may have been chosen as the site for the temple to distance it from the rest of the city, as well as for access to flowing water for use in the temple. [2]
The island eventually became so identified with the temple it supported that it was modeled to resemble a ship in reference to the story of the temple's founding. Travertine facing was added in mid or late first century by the banks to resemble a ship's prow and stern, and an obelisk was erected in the middle, symbolizing the vessel's mast. Walls were put around the island, and it came to resemble a Roman ship. Faint vestiges of Aesculapius' rod with an entwining snake are still visible on the "prow".
After the Temple of Aesculapius, shrines dedicated to other deities were also erected after the 2nd century BC, namely: [3]
In time, the obelisk was removed and replaced with a cross-topped column. After it was destroyed in 1867, Pope Pius IX had an aedicula, called "Spire", put in its place. This monument, designed by Ignazio Jacometti, is decorated with statues of four saints related to the island: St. Bartholomew the Apostle, St. Paulinus of Nola, St. Francis of Assisi and St. John of God. Parts of the obelisk are now in the museum[ which? ] in Naples.
In 998 Emperor Otto III had a basilica, that of San Bartolomeo all'Isola, built over the Aesculapius temple's ruins on the eastern side (downstream end) of the island. [3] This was dedicated to his friend, the martyr Adalbert of Prague; the name of St. Bartholomew was added only later. In the early 20th century, prior to the Fascist regime's restoration of ancient place names, the Tiber Island was called the Isola di S. Bartolomeo. [4] Likewise, Cestius' Bridge was called the Ponte S. Bartolomeo.
The island is still considered a place of healing because a hospital, founded in 1584, was built on the island and is still operating. It is staffed by the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God or "Fatebenefratelli". [5] The hospital was not built on the same spot as the temple, but stands on the western half of the island.
During the 1930s, almost all the houses on the island were demolished to allow for the enlargement of the hospital.
During WWII, when the Nazis occupied Rome in September 1943 and started rounding up the Jews, Dr. Borromeo, head of the hospital, invented an imaginary deadly and highly contagious illness he dubbed “Il Morbo di K” to keep the SS away and protect those Jews hiding inside the wards, just a stone's throw from the Ghetto. [6]
During summer, the island hosts the Isola del Cinema film festival. [7]
The island serves as the player's headquarters in the 2010 action-adventure stealth video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood .
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 km (252 mi) through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the River Aniene, to the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ostia and Fiumicino. It drains a basin estimated at 17,375 km2 (6,709 sq mi). The river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of the city of Rome, which was founded on its eastern banks.
The Asclepieion, plurally Asclepieia, was a healing temple in ancient Greece that was dedicated to Asclepius, the first doctor-demigod in Greek mythology. Asclepius was said to have been such a skilled doctor that he could even raise people from the dead. Stemming from the myth of his great healing powers, pilgrims would flock to temples built in his honor in order to seek spiritual and physical healing.
The Pons Sublicius is the earliest known bridge of ancient Rome, spanning the Tiber River near the Forum Boarium downstream from the Tiber Island, near the foot of the Aventine Hill. According to tradition, its construction was ordered by Ancus Marcius around 642 BC, but this date is approximate because there is no ancient record of its construction. Marcius wished to connect the newly fortified Janiculum Hill on the Etruscan side to the rest of Rome, augmenting the ferry that was there. The bridge was part of public works projects that included building a port at Ostia, at the time the location of worked salt deposits.
Monte Soratte is a mountain ridge in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy. It is a narrow, isolated limestone ridge with a length of 5.5 km (3.4 mi) and six peaks. Located some 10 km (6.2 mi) south east of Civita Castellana and c. 45 km (28 mi) north of Rome, it is the sole notable ridge in the Tiber Valley, geologically represents the Meso-cenozoic Tiber ridge. The nearest settlement is the village of Sant'Oreste. Saint Orestes or Edistus, after whom the settlement is named, is said to have been martyred near Monte Soratte.
Sant'Angelo is the 11th rione of Rome, Italy, located in Municipio I. Often written as rione XI - Sant'Angelo, it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand. In another version, the angel holds a sword in its right hand and a scale in its left.
Ripa is the 12th rione of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. XII, and it is located in the Municipio I.
The Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi, is the oldest extant bridge in Rome, Italy. Built in 62 BC, it spans half of the Tiber River, from the Campus Martius on the east side to Tiber Island in the middle. Quattro Capi refers to the two marble pillars of the two-faced Janus herms on the parapet, which were moved here from the nearby Church of St Gregory in the 14th century.
Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome located at the mouth of the Tiber on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia.
The Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island is a titular minor basilica, located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 998 by Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor and contains the putative relics of St. Bartholomew the Apostle. It is located on Tiber Island, on the site of the former temple of Aesculapius, which had cleansed the island of its former ill-repute among the Romans and established its reputation as a hospital, continued under Christian auspices today.
The Medical community as used in this article refers to medical institutions and services offered to populations under the jurisdiction of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. The Medical services of the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire were adopted from ancient Greece. It was first imported from Greece through Greek colonies in Magna Graecia and the Etruscan civilization. After the Roman conquest of Greece, enslaved Greeks brought more Greek medical knowledge to Rome. In 219 BCE a surgeon named Archagathus traveled from the Peloponnesus to Rome. He became a citizen and purchased a taberna near a crossroads. This became the first officina medica. Previously, the pater familias was responsible for the medical art in early Rome. Physicians in ancient Rome would take the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors would begin their appointments with patients by stating "si vales valeo," which translated to "if you are well I am well." Physicians were often wealthy. Augustus' physician, Antonius Musa, received a salary of 30,000 sesterces. Doctors would also serve in the Roman military and treat injured soldiers.
The Pons Cestius is an ancient Roman bridge connecting the right bank of the Tiber with the west bank of Tiber Island in Rome, Italy. In Late Antiquity, the bridge was replaced and renamed the Pons Gratiani. It is also known as Ponte San Bartolomeo. No more than one third of the present stone bridge is of ancient material, as it was entirely rebuilt and extended in the 19th century after numerous earlier restorations.
Montopoli di Sabina is a town and comune (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region of Latium, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Rome and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Rieti. In 2011, it had a population of 4,222.
Pedro Soriano, OH (1515-1588) was a Catholic religious brother who succeeded John of God as the First General of Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God.
The Temple of Asclepius was an ancient Roman temple to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, on the Isola Tiberina in Rome.
The Temple of Isis and Serapis was a double temple in Rome dedicated to the Egyptian deities Isis and Serapis on the Campus Martius, directly to the east of the Saepta Julia. The temple to Isis, the Iseum Campense, stood across a plaza from the Serapeum dedicated to Serapis. The remains of the Temple of Serapis now lie under the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco, and the Temple of Isis lay north of it, just east of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Both temples were made up of a combination of Egyptian and Hellenistic architectural styles. Much of the artwork decorating the temples used motifs evoking Egypt, and they contained several genuinely Egyptian objects, such as couples of obelisks in red or pink granite from Syene.
Fatebenefratelli Hospital is a hospital located on the western side of the Tiber Island in Rome. It was established in 1585 and is currently run by the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. The hospital is known for having sheltered Jews during the Holocaust by diagnosing them with a fictitious disease called "Syndrome K".
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rome:
The Temple of Aesculapius located in the gardens of the Villa Borghese, in Rome, was built in the ionic style between 1785 and 1792 by Antonio Asprucci and his son Mario Asprucci, with help from Cristoforo Unterperger. The temple was perhaps built in memory of the destroyed ancient temple to the god of Medicine on the Tiber Island.
In ancient Rome, the Ager Vaticanus was the alluvial plain on the right (west) bank of the Tiber. It was also called Ripa Veientana or Ripa Etrusca, indicating the Etruscan dominion during the archaic period. It was located between the Janiculum, the Vatican Hill, and Monte Mario, down to the Aventine Hill and up to the confluence of the Cremera creek.
The via Tiberina was an ancient Roman road, which from the north of Rome, going up the right bank of the Tiber river, crossed the ancient center of Veio, Capena and Falerii Veteres countryside to Tiber Valley and continued towards Ocriculum, today in Umbria. Today, in the metropolitan city of Rome Capital, its route coincides with the provincial road 15 / A Tiberina.