Borgo Vecchio, also named in the Middle Ages Via Sancta, Carriera Sancta (both "Holy road") or Carriera Martyrum ("Martyrs road"), was a road in the city of Rome, Italy, important for historical and architectural reasons. The road was destroyed together with the adjacent quartier in 1936–37 due to the construction of Via della Conciliazione.
Location
Located in the Borgo rione, the road stretched roughly in the east–west direction, between Piazza Pia, which marked the entrance of the Borgo near the right bank of the Tiber, and Piazza Rusticucci, which until its demolition was the vestibule of Saint Peter's Square. At about two thirds of its length, Borgo Vecchio crossed Piazza Scossacavalli, the center of the rione. Together with the nearby road of Borgo Nuovo, completed in 1499, Borgo Vecchio delimited the so-called spina (the name derives from its resemblance with the median strip of a Roman circus), composed of several blocks elongated in an east west direction between Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica.
Denominations
During the Middle Ages the road was called Via Sancta or also, with a term of French origin, Carriera Sancta and Carriera Martyrum, because of the martyrs who went to die in Circus of Nero. The name Borgo Vecchio dates back to after 1570, by analogy with the nearby Borgo Nuovo. In fact from that period was so renamed the Via Alessandrina in Borgo; this was due to the opening of another Via Alessandrina in the city: the new road, lying in rione Monti, was so named after its promoter, cardinal Michele Bonelli, nicknamed "Cardinale Alessandrino" from his city of origin in Piedmont.
History
Roman age and Middle Ages
During the Roman Age a road, the via Cornelia, run through the Ager Vaticanus region in east–west direction. It is disputed among the scholars whether this road followed the same path as the future Borgo Vecchio road, or ran north of it, just in the middle of the spina.
Since the early Middle Ages many sources – starting in the 6th century with Procopius and ending in the 13th century with the author of the Life of Cola di Rienzo – mention a covered passage, the , erected to protect from sun and rain the pilgrims going to St. Peter and coming from the city through Ponte Sant'Angelo. These, after entering a gate (later named Porta Castello) could walk through the Borgo of the Saxons (today's Borgo S. Spirito) or run under the Portica or Porticus (named also Porticus Sancti Petri). It is probable that the portico was a path of Roman origin, the Porticus Maior, which had two arches at its ends. According to several scholars, the portico would have been located roughly in the center of today's Via della Conciliazione; according to others, however, it would have had the same layout as the future Borgo Vecchio. An indication in favor of the last hypothesis is Borgo Vecchio's width, which was almost everywhere constant with a value of . However, despite the many accounts, during the demolition works for the construction of Via della Conciliazione nothing was found hinting to the existence of a covered passage. It is then possible that as Portica was meant the succession of house porches, a common feature in Roman medieval architecture, which allowed the pilgrims to reach Saint Peter from Ponte Sant'Angelo without walking on open air.
The popes always took great care of this path; Adrian I () had more than 12,000 blocks of tufa extracted from the Tiber, widening and repairing the road; Paschal I () and Leo IV () carried out restorations after the two terrible fires that devastated Borgo; Innocent II () renewed the tile roofing of the road.
During the Avignon Papacy the flow of pilgrims to Rome fainted causing Rome and the Borgo to decay. Assuming that the Portica existed, it should have collapsed during this period, and was never restored, since the popes understood well that any covered passage could have been a precious shelter for enemies trying to assault the castle and to reach the bridge. In its place appears in the sources the street called Via Sancta or also, with a term of French origin, Carriera Sancta and Carriera Martyrum.
Until the begin of the Renaissance Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Santo Spirito were the only roads which allowed pilgrims coming from the left bank to reach Saint Peter.