W7-2: Trevifontein

W7-2: TREVI FOUNTAIN and surroundings

PHOTO 1: The vase on the balustrade around the Trevi Fountain

PHOTO 2: Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio in an engraving by Giovanni Battista Falda (1665). The current fountain was not yet there.

A lot can be read about the various peculiar sights around the Trevi Fountain in the book itself. However, we would like to share with the visitor a small anecdote regarding the Church Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio, the then parish church of the papal Quirinal.

Urns containing organs are preserved for 22 popes. Additionally, Bartolomeo Pinelli also found his final resting place here. He was a folk artist from Trastevere who died in utter poverty to the extent that the neighborhood had to organize a collection to pay for the burial costs. A kind of crowdfunding avant la lettre. However, no monument or memorial plaque was placed at his grave. When a search was conducted for this grave in 1927, it turned out to be empty. Perhaps the body was removed immediately after the burial. Where to, no one knows.

It may also be worth mentioning that our artist was excommunicated. His name appeared in 1834 on a pamphlet that was posted at San Bartolomeo on Tiber Island listing all the individuals who had not observed their Easter. An unbeliever among all those popes..?

Marc Vandenbon