Campo de' Fiori

In the morning Campo de' Fiori is a market of fruit, vegetables and flowers; at night it is one of the liveliest squares in Rome. But in the middle, a hooded bronze figure looks on sternly. This is Giordano Bruno, and he was burned alive in this square.

117 February 1600

Bruno was a Dominican friar, philosopher and cosmologist who argued for an infinite universe with countless worlds. After years of imprisonment and trial, the Roman Inquisition condemned him for heresy. According to the chronicles, he was brought here with his tongue restrained so he could not speak, and burned at the stake. At the time, Campo de' Fiori was a regular place for public executions.

2A statue with a purpose

The monument, by Ettore Ferrari, was unveiled on 9 June 1889, at the height of the tension between the new Italian state and the papacy, which had lost Rome in 1870. It was a secular, anticlerical gesture, and it is often said that the statue was deliberately turned to face the Vatican.

The name of the square, according to the most accepted explanation, recalls the meadow that covered this spot in the Middle Ages, before it was built up. The market came later, in 1869, moved here from Piazza Navona.

3What to look for

• The inscription on the pedestal: «To Bruno, from the age he foresaw, here where the pyre burned».
• The bronze reliefs on the pedestal, with scenes from his life and trial.
• The curve of the buildings in nearby Via di Grottapinta, which follow the shape of the ancient Theatre of Pompey.