Photo by Chris Naffziger
The Roman Forum.
The architecture of St. Louis has a long and storied pedigree, going far back in history past its 254 years of existence. Whenever I visit Rome, Italy, I’m always amazed at the richness of its architectural history, and just how much the Eternal City influences the Gateway City’s built environment. Besides the obvious, such as the Colosseum’s influence on modern-day American sports stadiums, there is more. For centuries, architects such as Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Art Museum and Central Library, traveled to Rome for inspiration. The beauty of ancient Roman and Italian Renaissance lends their influences to numerous iconic St. Louis buildings.
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Photo by Chris Naffziger
The Baths of Caracalla.
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Saint Louis Art Museum.
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Sculpture Hall, Saint Louis Art Museum.
The Baths of Caracalla and the Saint Louis Art Museum
Located on the Caelian Hill, southeast of the Forum, the Baths, or Thermae of Caracalla, attest to the sheer size and complexity of ancient Roman engineering. Bathing was a public act in ancient Rome, and the Baths of Caracalla provided facilities for thousands of residents in the southeastern part of the city. While time has taken its toll, the ruins are simply stunning, and have provided inspiration to dozens of famous architects, from Leon Battista Alberti to Michelangelo. The huge halls, where there were hot, warm and cold baths and pools, featured soaring barrel and groin vaults, all covered in white marble or elaborate mosaics focusing on aquatic scenes. When Cass Gilbert designed the Saint Louis Art Museum for the Worlds’ Fair in 1904, he turned to the monumental spaces of the Baths of Caracalla for inspiration, and the institution’s Sculpture Hall is St. Louis’s own piece of Roman inspiration.
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Photo by Chris Naffziger
Palazzo Barberini.
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Palazzo Farnese.
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Central Library.
Renaissance and Baroque Palazzi and the Central Library
When Cass Gilbert came back to St. Louis to design the new library in downtown St. Louis, he turned to the legacy of palazzi, or palaces, left behind by the wealthy patrons of Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Palazzo Farnese, which is now the French Embassy of Italy, was partly designed by Michelangelo for his wealthy papal patrons, who also followed the Florentine sculptor’s recommendation to acquire the ancient Roman sculptures found in the Baths of Caracalla. The beautiful, highly elaborately carved wood ceilings in the Central Library’s reading rooms recall the equally lavish ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese’s Gran Salone. The elegant main staircase, with its Tuscan column-bedecked halls also recall the monumental interior of the palazzo. Meanwhile, the august entrance portals recall the front entrance of the Palazzo Barberini, itself partly designed by Bernini.
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Photo by Chris Naffziger
St. Paul outside the walls.
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Our Lady of Sorrows.
Paleo-Christian Basilicas and Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church
One of the most interesting aspects of Roman Catholic church architecture in St. Louis are the various distinct periods of influence in our city’s houses of worship. As the 20th century dawned, and the St. Louis moved down southwest towards the city limits, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese built churches recalling the Early, or Paleo Christian basilica churches, some whose roots go back to the patronage of the Emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century. While St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome is a 19th-century recreation of the original 4th century church destroyed by fire, the basilica shows the influence of its contemporaries on St. Louis’s own Our Lady of Sorrows on South Kingshighway. The arcaded front entrance, wider than the nave behind is one major influence, as well as the tall campanile, or bell tower, offset in the back. Inside, Our Lady of Sorrows’ long flanking colonnades and a flat, coffered ceiling demonstrate the enduring beauty of the churches of Rome such as St. Paul’s.
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The Colosseum.
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The Colosseum.
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Civil Courts Building.
The Roman Forum and the St. Louis Civic Center
The ancient forum, created when the marshes between the hills of Rome were drained by a giant sewer still in operation today, has inspired many public squares throughout history, both good and bad. Perhaps what is so fascinating about the Roman Forum is its very haphazard and spontaneous construction over the centuries. It was never planned, was crowded with dozens of temples and other public buildings, yet it remains the inspiration for public space. St. Louis attempted, as part of its City Beautiful Movement, to create its own public forum at the corner of Market and Tucker. The huge, gray stone Beaux-Arts creations built over several decades of the early Twentieth Century are a testament to planners’ attempts to capture some of the magic of the great public spaces such as the Roman Forum. But the determined planners, in their rush to create huge swaths of parkland and broad avenues, missed the most important lesson from the ancient Romans: great public spaces are messy, and often haphazard, and at their heart, need humans, more than careful planning, to create a memorable place.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.
