Piazza della Rotonda Piazza della Rotonda The Piazza della Rotonda is a piazza (city square) in Rome, Italy, on the south side of which is located the Pantheon. The square gets its name from the Pantheon's informal title as the church of "Santa Maria Rotonda". Although the Pantheon has stood from antiquity, the area in front of it had over the centuries become choked with a maze of sheds and small shops that had grown up around its columns. These medieval accretions were cleared by order of Pope Eugenius IV (1431–39) and the piazza was laid out and paved. It took its name
Sant'Agnese in Agone of this church is unrelated to the ‘agony’ of the martyr: "in agone" was the ancient name of Piazza Navona ("piazza in agone"), and meant instead, from the Greek, ‘in the site of the competitions’, because Piazza Navona was built on the form of an ancient Roman stadium on the Greek model, with one flat end, and was used for footraces. From ‘in agone’, the popular use and pronunciation changed the name into ‘Navona’, but other roads in the area kept the original name. Bernini's "Fountain of the Four Rivers" is situated in front of the church. It is often