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ROME Across the River: A History of TRASTEVERE

Trastevere ("beyond the Tiber") is like a faded postcard, a little worn around the edges but still charming. With its wide-open piazzas, meandering streets, weathered Renaissance buildings, and overgrown personality, it's become an irresistible mecca for visitors. Trastevere is an enclave of entertainment - a rotating set of street performers entertains almost every night, and unforgettable eateries and bars pepper its piazzas and side streets. For a trip to the past, visit the southern and western flanks of Trastevere for pockets of yesteryear, less traversed areas with a residual 1960s and 70s Roman vibe.


Colorful Trastevere is a funky, bohemian area that clings to its centuries-old, working-class roots. It's known for traditional and innovative trattorias, craft beer pubs and artisan shops, as well as simple B&Bs and budget hotels. From the pre-dinner passeggiata (promenade) until late, a young crowd buzzes around Piazza di San Calisto and Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, the site of a gilded, mosaic-filled church.


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Situated across the river from Rome’s historic centre, Trastevere was once the city’s working-class artisan district, a warren of narrow streets and cloistered piazzas that was home to Rome’s tradesmen, fishermen, and foreign communities from the east of the empire.

Fast-forward 2,000 years and while Trastevere’s professional and ethnic makeup has changed its rugged, bohemian character has not. This article takes you on a whistle-stop history of Trastevere, from when it was first settled by the Etruscans to its current popularity in Italian cinema.

The meaning of Trastevere
The word Trastevere comes from the Latin trans Tiberim, which translates as ‘across the River Tiber’.

But this isn’t how the ancient Romans would have known it.

They called the area Ripa Etrusca—the Etruscan Bank—after Rome’s great rivals who occupied this side of the river for much of Rome’s early history.

The Etruscan presence on the Tiber’s west bank also explains why Trastevere’s Janiculum Hill doesn’t feature among the Seven Hills of Rome. The Janiculum Hill offered a vantage point over both Etruscan territory to the west and Rome to the east – hence why it was named after Janus, the two-headed god.

The Janiculum Hill became incorporated within the city during the seventh century BC, when King Ancus Marcius brought it within the city walls and connected it to the city via a bridge known as the Pons Sublicius (Bridge of Wooden Stilts).

He did this so no enemy could occupy its advantageous heights. In fact, whenever Rome’s People’s assembly, the Comitia Centuria, left the safety of the city walls to hold their elections in the Campus Martius, a guard would ascend the Janiculum and raise a red flag to signal to them they were safe.

Trastevere’s Ancient History
As the Roman Republic expanded, and foreign trade boomed, more traders started making their way upriver into the city from the port city of Ostia and setting up shop in Trastevere.

For most of the Republic, Trastevere was connected to the east bank of the River Tiber only via one bridge. Trastevere’s isolation from the rest of Rome forged a unique culture, made more unique still by the settlement of Rome’s first Jews and Syrians during the Roman Republic and the arrival or conversion of Rome’s first Christians from early years of the Roman Empire.

Trastevere officially became incorporated within the city of Rome during the reign of Augustus (31 BC – 14 CE). He divided the city into 14 districts known as rioni, of which Trastevere was the 13th (XIII).

At the height of the Roman Empire, Trastevere was a mishmash of culture and architecture. Garum-reeking warehouses and poor residential districts bordered opulent villas and lush gardens, one of which belonged to Julius Caesar. In the 340s CE it would have its first church, Santa Maria in Trastevere. And although Trastevere’s earliest existing synagogue dates from the 11th century, during the imperial age it would have bene home to schools, synagogues and private places of worship.

At the centre of all of this stood the naumachia, an enormous aquatic Colosseum completed during the reign of Augustus in which mariners battled to the death recreating naval battles for the entertainment of the masses. Archaeologists believe that Augstus’ naumachia lies beneath today’s Piazza San Cosimato in Trastevere. Stand there today, and you can still make out the shape.

Trastevere in the Middle Ages
Trastevere’s main allure is its labyrinth of quaint narrow cobbled streets and colourful, ivy-covered buildings. But you might notice that there are no grand palaces with elaborate fountains, unlike the rest of Rome. That’s because when the Goths sacked the city in the 400s AD, they destroyed the bridges connecting Trastevere to the rest of Rome, cutting it off for more than 1,000 years.

Rome’s population wanted considerably throughout the early Middle Ages. Its Jewish community gradually migrated closer to the city centre, on the eastern side of the river, where the papal authorities would establish the Ghetto in 1555. And Trastevere was left abandoned.

When Rome’s administrators agreed the new boundaries of twelve districts in the mid 12th century, Trastevere was not included among them. It would only reemerge from obscurity two centuries later, when its population had already started to grow once again.

Trastevere’s Renaissance
Trastevere’s lack of nobel palaces compared to Rome’s centre means it isn’t best known for its museums and galleries. But Villa Farnesina is among the most stunnning in Rome and well worth a visit.

Built for the banker Agostino Chigi in the early 16th century, Villa Farnesina occupies a vast corridor of land next to what is now the John Cabot University on the bank of the Tiber. The villa is noteable for its frescoes by realistic frescoes Raphael and Giulio Romano.

It passed into the hands of the uber-rich, pope-providing Farnese family in 1590. According to legend, the family would often host extravagant banquets there, and to show off their wealth they would throw their silveware into the Tiber at the end of each meal. (What they didn’t advertise was that they had carefully constructed nets beneath the water to catch and recycle said silverware in time for the next meal!)

Trastevere Today
Trastevere is still known as a foreigners’ district today. It is home to three American universities, draws thousands of international tourists every day, and is a popular haunt among Rome’s Erasmus students.

As Rome has Seven Hills, Trastevere now has seven bridges connecting it to the east bank of the city.

Some Romans claim that Trastevere is the true heart of Rome, it is popular with the locals on a Saturday night for eating and drinking thanks to its numerous bars and restaurants. The residents still celebrate the annual Festa de’ Noantri – literally the festival of ‘us others’. It is an ancient festival from 15-29 July that recalls Trastevere’s separation from the rest of the city and their fierce independent character.