About Piazza Navona
The shape gives away its origin. The square occupies the space of the stadium built in Domitian's time, which is why it looks like an elongated racetrack surrounded by buildings. Between 1652 and 1866, on August weekends, it was flooded for the Pamphili family's parties: a public swimming pool with a view of the Baroque.
At the center, Bernini's four giants represent the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Río de la Plata. Many guides say one of the statues covers its face so as not to see the church of Bernini's rival Borromini, but the fountain was finished before Borromini began work. The cloth on the Nile says something else: nobody knew where the river began.
