Little is known of the architect, who was favored by the French in the design process. Mazarin died in 1661, the pope in 1667, while Gueffier's will was successfully contested by a nephew who claimed half so the project lay dormant until Pope Clement XI Albani renewed interest in it in the early 18th century.Ī competition was held in 1717, which was won by Francesco de Sanctis, though Alessandro Specchi was long thought to have produced the winning entry. The Roman-educated Cardinal Mazarin took a personal interest in the project and entrusted it to his agent in Rome- whose plan included an equestrian monument of Louis XIV of France- an ambitious intrusion that created a furore in papal Rome. Archival drawings from the 1580s show that Pope Gregory XIII was interested in constructing a stair to the recently completed façade of the French church.įrench diplomat to the Holy See Étienne Gueffier died in 1660, leaving part of his fortune for the construction of the stairs. Generations of heated-debate over how the steep, 29-meter slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be urbanized preceded the final execution.

The street on the left is Via del Babuino, leading to Piazza del Popolo. History The site before the construction of the stairs in a late 17th century engraving by Giovanni Battista Falda The piazza di Spagna in an 18th-century etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, seen from south. The stairway was designed by the architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi. The monumental stairway of 135 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier's bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Trinità dei Monti church under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, at the top of the steps, and the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See in the Palazzo Monaldeschi at the bottom of the steps.

The Spanish Steps ( Italian: Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti) in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top. The Spanish Steps, seen from Piazza di Spagna.

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