View of the piazza

The modernization of Santa Maria della Pace by Pietro da Cortona was carried out in 1656-57. The new fa�ade, placed in front of the Quattrocento church, together with the systematisation of the small piazza is of much greater importance than the changes in the interior. Although regularly laid-out piazzas had a long tradition in Italy, Cortona’s design inaugurates 20a new departure, for he applied the experience of the theatre to town-planning: the church appears like the stage, the piazza like the auditorium, and the flanking houses like the boxes. It is the logical corollary of such conception that the approaches from the side of the church are through a kind of stage doors, which hide the roads for the view from the piazza.

The etching of 1756 by Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) shows the piazza in front of Santa Maria della Pace, Rome.

View the ground plan of the piazza.