024.

Piazza di Pietra

"Basilica di Antonino Pio," Vasi's name for the temple now known as the Hadrianeum (1), is not a complete misnomer because it was built by Antoninus Pius in 145 AD (138-161 AD), but dedicated to his predecessor and adoptive father, Hadrian. At the end of the 17th century Carlo Fontana converted the remains of the ancient temple into the Dogana di Terra as both Vasi and Nolli refer to it. The Dogana di Terra was the customs house for imports arriving by land (Terra) as opposed to water, for which a separate building existed at the river port of Ripa Grande, Plate 97. In 1879 the building was converted into Rome's Stock Exchange by Vespignani; it is now the city's Chamber of Commerce. The narrow, gated street to the right of the building, which once led to Piazza S. Ignazio, Plate 163, has since been blocked. The Collegio dei Bergamaschi (2) on the left was part of the religious complex whose church faces onto Piazza Colonna, Plate 22. Vasi shows about a dozen soldiers in the print whose quarters (3) appear in the near left foreground which is confirmed by Nolli in his map where he represents soldiers’ billets with a rectangle bounded by dots.