In the very heart of Trastevere stands one of its most active and public squares located directly in front of the church whose name it takes, Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. An 8th century polygonal fountain standing directly in front of the church adorns its center. Trastevere received its first supply of public water only in the first century AD, when Emperor Trajan provided the area with an aqueduct (Aqua Traiana). Reconstructed several times between the 15th and 19th centuries, the fountain’s architects include luminaries such as Bramante, Rainaldi, Bernini and Fontana. Bernini relocated the fountain to its current location in the center of the square.
Opposite the fountain on the other side is a great brick structure, the Palazzo San Callisto, named after the Pope whose house (titulus) served as a private church for the early Christian community and over which Christians built the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. The current version of this palace, constructed in the 17th century, now houses offices of the diocese the City and apartment residences for members of the Roman Courier, officials who work in the Vatican.
Also on the piazza is the Palazzo Cavalieri- Ossoli. In the 19th century the palace belonged to the family of Giacomo Leopardi, one of Italy’s greatest modern poets and philosophers.
