Portico d'Ottavia

Portico d'Ottavia Review

A landmark of ancient Rome, the Portico d'Ottavia looms over the Ghetto district and comprises one of its most picturesque set pieces, as the time-stained church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria was built right into its ruins. With a few surviving columns, the Portico d'Ottavia is a huge porticoed enclosure, named by Augustus in honor of his sister Octavia. Originally 390 feet wide and 433 feet long, it encompassed two temples, a meeting hall, and a library, and served as a kind of grandiose entrance foyer for the adjacent Teatro di Marcello. The ruins of the portico became Rome's pescheria (fish market) during the Middle Ages. A stone plaque on a pillar, a relic of that time, admonishes in Latin that the head of any fish surpassing the length of the plaque was to be cut off "up to the first fin" and given to the city fathers or else the vendor was to pay a fine of 10 gold florins. The heads were used to make fish soup and were considered a great delicacy. At press time, the church was closed for restoration.