{"id":2199,"date":"2026-03-20T12:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/?page_id=2199"},"modified":"2026-07-18T12:27:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:27:25","slug":"tiber-island","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/?page_id=2199","title":{"rendered":"Tiber\u00a0Island\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Strategically situated, the important\u00a0Tiber Island\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>sits in the middle of the river\u00a0close\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0Palatine\u00a0Hill.\u00a0The\u00a0river\u2019s\u00a0powerful\u00a0currents\u00a0run\u00a0dangerous and swift throughout its length, but the proximity of hills along its banks creates conditions allowing for the emergence of an island making a crossing possible. Downstream from it, the City\u2019s earliest bridge (Pons\u00a0Sublicius<\/strong>) spanned the river around 642 BC.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although its location became a decisive factor for the establishment of the Roman colony on the Palatine,\u00a0historians\u00a0know\u00a0very little\u00a0about the island during the ancient period of Roman history.\u00a0In 293 BC, however, after the\u00a0City\u00a0had\u00a0suffered\u00a0badly\u00a0from\u00a0a\u00a0serious\u00a0epidemic, an\u00a0official\u00a0embassy,\u00a0at\u00a0the urging of the Sibylline\u00a0prophetess, travelled to Greece to ask help from the god of healing,\u00a0Aesculapius<\/span><\/strong>, at his shrine in Epidaurus.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Greek mythology describes Aesculapius, son of Apollo and Coronis, as the god of medicine, instructed at an early age his father and others in the art of healing. A sacred snake he had\u00a0encountered\u00a0and whose life he had spared gifted him with knowledge of medicine and the power to restore life to\u00a0the\u00a0dead.\u00a0Temples\u00a0for\u00a0his\u00a0worship\u00a0(Asclepia)\u00a0<\/strong>spread\u00a0across\u00a0the\u00a0Greek world. The most prominent of these arose at\u00a0Epidaurus in southern\u00a0Greece<\/span><\/strong>, on the island of Kos where the \u2018father of medicine\u2019 practiced, and at Pergamum in Asia. The ill ritually achieved healing through the offerings of sacrifice to the god, the priestly interpretation of dreams experienced by patients, and the application of therapies revealed in those dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aesculapian snakes played a prominent ritualistic role in the healing process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Modern medical professions still employ the\u00a0caduceus symbol\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>of\u00a0Aesculapius,\u00a0winged snakes wrapped around a wooden staff. The caduceus,\u00a0the\u00a0staff\u00a0associated\u00a0with\u00a0Aesculapius\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0snake, became\u00a0his constant companion. The Hippocratic oath which medical doctors still take, once began with an invocation to Apollo and Aesculapius.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When a great plague struck the Roman populace in 289 BC Roman priests consulted the Sibylline Books whose oracle instructed them to bring the statue of Aesculapius from its home in Epidaurus to the City. Priests of Aesculapius gave the Roman visitors a sacred snake to take back to the\u00a0City\u00a0as a totem.\u00a0When the ship approached the\u00a0City, the snake escaped, slithered into the river, swam to the\u00a0island\u00a0and vanished. Romans saw this as a portent that Aesculapius desired that his temple be built on the island.\u00a0The\u00a0Temple\u00a0of\u00a0Aesculapius<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>stood\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0current\u00a0site\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Church\u00a0of\u00a0San Bartolomeo. Emperor Augustus reshaped the island to regulate the flow of the Tiber and diminish its frequent flooding.\u00a0He configured the entire island in marble to make it look like a ship.\u00a0<\/strong>An obelisk was raised in its center to resemble a mast with the Temple serving as the stern. Parts of it (prow)\u00a0remain\u00a0visible today\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0far\u00a0end\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0island\u00a0near the Ponte\u00a0Rotto in the form of Aesculapius’ symbol, the rod with an entwining snake.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The porticoes around the Temple served as a hospital until the fall of the Empire\u00a0in\u00a0Rome.\u00a0A\u00a0hospital\u00a0of\u00a0some\u00a0kind\u00a0has\u00a0remained\u00a0continuously\u00a0on\u00a0the island right up to the present day. Its current iteration, the\u00a0Fatebenefratelli\u00a0Hospital<\/span><\/strong>, founded in the 16th century staffed by the\u00a0Hospitaller Order of St. John of God stands directly across the San Bartolomeo church<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Nazis occupied Rome in 1943, they began to round up Jews for transport to concentration camps in Germany. The head of the hospital created a subterfuge to camouflage Jews hidden on the island. He tricked SS soldiers into believing that a highly contagious disease infested the island and succeeded in keeping them away even though Jews lived hidden among the wards, just a stone’s throw from the Ghetto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Romans\u00a0were\u00a0the\u00a0first\u00a0ever\u00a0to\u00a0construct permanent\u00a0bridges<\/strong>,\u00a0a\u00a0skill\u00a0they\u00a0acquired\u00a0early on from Etruscan engineers. Their first bridge, the Pons\u00a0Sublicius, a pontoon bridge constructed in the 6th<\/sup>\u00a0century BC, consisted of a series of inter-connected boats strung across the river. Later they built wooden\u00a0bridges,\u00a0and\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a02nd<\/sup>\u00a0century\u00a0BC,\u00a0around\u00a0150,\u00a0Romans\u00a0engineers created the first stone bridge,\u00a0Pons Aemilius<\/span><\/strong>, whose remnants (Ponte Rotto<\/strong>) visibly protrude from the river downstream from the Tiber Island on its south side.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On\u00a0the\u00a0right\u00a0bank\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0river\u00a0just\u00a0below\u00a0the\u00a0Aemilian\u00a0bridge,\u00a0Julius\u00a0Caesar carved out a huge basin filled with river water. He, and later, Augustus, sponsored on special\u00a0occasions\u00a0naumachia<\/span><\/strong>, spectacular mock naval battles involving the group combat of thousands of sailors aboard ships fitted for the occasion in a space as large as five football fields.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Fabrician\u00a0bridge, built in 62 BC by Lucius Fabricius, the curator of the roads and a member of the patrician\u00a0Fabricii\u00a0family, spans half of the Tiber and rests on two wide arches supported by a central pillar in the middle of the river. The\u00a0Pons Fabricius<\/span><\/strong>, the City\u2019s\u00a0oldest extant bridge, has functioned\u00a0uninterruptedly\u00a0and\u00a0unmodified,\u00a0from\u00a0its\u00a0construction\u00a0until\u00a0today<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the island towards the Ghetto side of the river, stands the 11th<\/sup>\u00a0century\u00a0Torre della Contessa<\/span><\/strong>, a medieval tower constructed by the\u00a0Pierleoni\u00a0to protect its river interests and defend the island which\u00a0then constituted\u00a0one of its\u00a0several\u00a0compounds\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0City.\u00a0The\u00a0tower\u00a0takes\u00a0it\u00a0name\u00a0from\u00a0Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, a close ally of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy involving Emperor Henry IV of Germany. She\u00a0resided\u00a0there briefly in 1087 and in 1115 was buried in St. Peter\u2019s, one of only six women entombed there. Later in the Middle Ages the tower became the property of aristocratic families: the Savelli in the 13th<\/sup>\u00a0century and the\u00a0Caetani\u00a0in the\u00a014th<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At\u00a0the\u00a0entrance\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0bridge\u00a0stand\u00a0two\u00a0marble\u00a0posts\u00a0with\u00a0two-faced\u00a0Janus herms\u00a0(Quattro Capi<\/span><\/strong>)\u00a0on each pillar giving rise to the alternative name sometimes used for the bridge, Ponte Quattro Capi.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 1st<\/sup>\u00a0century BC\u00a0Pons Cestius<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>connects the right bank of the Tiber to the middle of the Island where it joins the Ponte Fabricius. Romans replaced\u00a0it in\u00a0the\u00a04th\u00a0century\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a0new\u00a0structure\u00a0made\u00a0of building\u00a0material from the portico of the Theater of Marcellus. Over the centuries the bridge, restored several times, underwent a complete reconstruction in the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century. Only one third of the present structure\u00a0contains\u00a0material from the ancient bridge, its central arch.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was from this bridge in the 19th<\/sup> century that the German historian <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferdinand\u00a0Gregorovius<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>was\u00a0by\u00a0his\u00a0own\u00a0account\u00a0inspired\u00a0to\u00a0write\u00a0his\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

multi-volume study of the City (The History of Rome in the Middle Ages<\/strong>), a monumental 16-year project for which he became the first German to be awarded an honorary citizen of the City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the Middle\u00a0Ages\u00a0a many\u00a0(twenty)\u00a0floating flourmills<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>operated\u00a0on the\u00a0Tiber\u00a0River.\u00a0Five\u00a0of\u00a0these\u00a0were\u00a0docked\u00a0along the\u00a0banks\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Island\u00a0<\/strong>and a chapel in the church of San Bartolomeo belonged to their confraternity until the 17th<\/sup>\u00a0century.\u00a0Well\u00a0into the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century\u00a0much of the City\u2019s flour came from these mills.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strategically situated, the important\u00a0Tiber Island\u00a0sits in the middle of the river\u00a0close\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0Palatine\u00a0Hill.\u00a0The\u00a0river\u2019s\u00a0powerful\u00a0currents\u00a0run\u00a0dangerous and swift throughout its length, but the proximity of hills along its banks creates conditions allowing for the emergence of an island making a crossing possible. Downstream from it, the City\u2019s earliest bridge (Pons\u00a0Sublicius) spanned the river around 642 BC.\u00a0 Although its location became…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2199","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeguide.hcc-nd.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}