STAZIONE VII COHORTI DEI VIGILI
(Roman firemen), remodelled and formed into seven watches by Augustus. The building was discovered in 1866. The custodian conducts the visitor over, fee half a franc. Descending the stairs we enter a mosaic paved courtyard, with a well in the centre, and on the right a small altar with mural paintings. There are several other chambers, and a bath, with numerous inscriptions on the walls scratched by the firemen during their idle moments.
Going down the Via Lungaretta, we enter the Piazza of S. Maria, in which are a fine fountain and the
CHURCH OF S. MARIA.
The façade is covered with mosaics representing the Virgin and Child enthroned, surrounded by ten virgins, and on either side the figure of a bishop (Innocent II. and Eugenius III.); above this are palms, the twelve sheep, and the mystic cities, and our Lord enthroned between angels. The interior contains twenty-two columns. The Assumption, on the ceiling, is by Domenichino. Beneath the high altar are the remains of five early popes. In the upper part of the tribune are mosaics of the Saviour and a female figure (representing the Church, the bride of Christ, and not the Virgin, as is generally said) seated on thrones; beneath are lambs, and representations from the life of the Virgin.
Leaving the church, and going down the Via della Scala, hence turning to the right into the Via di Ponte Sisto, the house on the left, a baker's shop, with Gothic upper windows, was the House of Raphael's Fornarina. Raphael's House was at No. 124 Via dei Coronari, near the S. Angelo Bridge. A short distance, and we reach
THE PONTE SISTO.
The present bridge was built by Pope Sixtus IV., who laid the foundation stone, April 29, 1473, on the site of an older bridge which was destroyed in the flood of A.D. 792, it having been built by Symmachus, prefect of Rome under Valentinian (A.D. 365), "under whose government the most sacred city enjoyed peace and plenty in an unusual degree; being also adorned with a magnificent and solid bridge which he constructed, and opened amid the great joy of his ungrateful fellow-citizens" (Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. iii. 3). In 1878, in making the new embankment for the Tiber, the remains of the left arch were found at the bottom of the river, upon which was part of the inscription, one foot seven inches high—Valentinian. Pedestals which formed part of the decorations were also found, and part of an inscription—Valentiniani au costi. At the Campus Martius end was a triumphal arch dedicated to Valens and Valentiniani—
DEDICANDI . OPERIS . HONORE . DELATO . INDICIO . PRINCIPUM .
MAXIMORUM . LUCIO . AURELIO . AVIANIO . SYMMACHO . VIRO .
CLARISSIMO . EX . PREFECTIS . URBI.
Remains of a bronze statue were also found.