The Piazza Cinquecento is the central bus square in front of the main railway station Roma Termini in Rome. Only local buses stop here. The bus information office is located in the centre of the square. Points of interest are the railway station itself, a statue of Pope Benedict, and the former Palazzo delle Poste della Stazione Termini, which has ancient Roman wall in its garden.
A brief history of Piazza dei Cinquecento
The ancient wall is known as an agger, which was an artificially created embankment protecting a Roman city. The agger in the garden next to the Piazza dei Cinquecento was part of the Servian Wall protecting the Esquilino district.
Over the course of the centuries, the area directly inside the wall became almost completely agricultural. Toward the end of the 16th century, the future pope Sixtus V Peretti started buying up the area, which resulted in the creation of the enormous Villa Montalto.
Between 1860 and 1878, the central railway station Roma Termini was built. The space in front of the station was still known as Piazza delle Terme, for the Terme Diocleziane. In 1916, the City Council decided to rename this space Piazza dei Cinquecento, in memory of the 548 Italians who fell in the Battle of Dogali in 1887. (The Dogali Obelisk, in memory of this event, was later moved from the Piazza to a nearby garden.)
What to see in the Piazza dei Cinquecento
Palazzo delle Poste della Stazione Termini
The current Hotel NH Collection Piazza Cinquecento started its existence as the Palazzo delle Poste della Stazione Termini. The building was constructed between 1923 and 1926, by Roberto Narducci. Originally, the main facade was on the Via Marsala side. The facade facing the current Piazza dei Cinquecento was hidden by a no longer existing customs office. In the 1930s, there were plans to tear down the building, but these were shelved because of World War II. In 2015, it was turned into a hotel.
Statue of Pope Giovanni Paolo II
The monument to John Paul II, created by Oliviero Rainaldi, was unveiled in 2011. Criticism was fierce, however, and the artist was forced to make a new version. The monument was reinstalled one year later.