Going up the Cordonata of the Campidoglio (the Capitoline Hill of Rome), that is the great staircase that brings us to the Senatorial Palace designed by the great Michelangelo, on the left we can see a small bronze statue, which seems almost placed there, in a corner, not seen by anyone. Who was this man who, obviously, is a figure so historical for Rome to obtain a representation of sculpture?

Cola di Rienzo, a roman man born in the heart of Rome that has changed, for a few years, the city. We are at the XIV century that really dark for the locals, especially for a historic event: the so-called Avignon Captivity. After fierce clashes between different factions and noble families, the clashes got stronger with the pontificate of Boniface VIII, the Conclave for the election of the new pope held in Perugia. After some time and a lot of effort, also because of the vetoes cross-reference of several cardinals who negotiated for this or that, always being influenced by foreign powers such as France, became pontiff Bertrand de Got, with the name of Clement V. As you can guess from the name, we are talking about a man born in the land of France and, above all, very close to the French king Philip the Fair who, basically, held in the fist of the pope. So much so that he convinced the Pope to transfer the whole of the Curia to Avignon. In Rome, and then, after nearly a thousand years, there was no longer the Vicar of Christ in the city.

Then imagine how already for a long time the city lived in a constant state of tension due to the pressure the anti-clerical that, politically speaking, expressed through the institution of the Municipality of Rome, officially born in 1143. In a city guided by the Pope, then the religious leader and not only, it is to be compared to a secular power. Now back to Cola di Rienzo, a man who emerged from the mass. He was really a man of the people because he was born in the Regola district in 1313 in a modest home of a modest family in front of the Broken Bridge. Despite its origins, however, from his youth fond of a lot with policy issues and, gradually, became a convinced supporter of the cause lay. Cola di Rienzo was a young man very fond of ancient art and with a mad desire to restore Rome to the glories of the empire, when it was a Caput Mundi. For him, Rome could not be a city torn apart by internal conflicts, by the pontiffs, who were leaving the city for political issues, from a population almost resigned to see the impressive ruins of the ancient civilization as mere witnesses of what was and what could never be. Cola di Rienzo wanted to restore Rome as the destiny seems to imagine for it: to be the fulcrum of the world. Of strong intelligence and studying a lot, Cola di Rienzo was able to take advantage of the power vacuum in the stability of the Avignon Captivity.

Although far, the pontiff continued to administer the city, but not with the same effectiveness as before, in view of its physical absence. For this reason, Cola, in 1347, he became a tribune, and was also able to be nicknamed as the liberator of Rome. All the people were for him, a man who wanted to fight against those powers that had brought Rome to be a ghost of what it was: the clergy and the nobility. He managed to stir the conscience with skilful moves policies and propaganda (the famous posters he did stick around for the city, in which he saw a sea storm with at the center the personification of Rome, accompanied by the allegorical images of the clergy and of the nobility busy and live in luxury, or even where you could see Rome burn in the flames of Hell, always caused by the Church and by the noble families). Images certainly strong which, however, were very convincing: Cola di Rienzo, in fact, was elected Senator of Rome in 1354. Thanks to an effective use of images, an art of public speaking presence, and to a capacity to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that they front, Cola arrived at the height of his political success. It is a pity that, apparently, was not able to handle it. He had the heavy hand with all his enemies, and in particular the cardinals or noblemen. They were the enemies of the people, after all. But then he began to exaggerate, to aggravate a little too much spirits, allowed its enemies to regroup. Step by step he began to behave as a despot and a God in the earth, organizing sumptuous parties and starving the people, reaching even to raise taxes just for, it seems, to organize its banquets, and its craving for wealth.

For this reason, the parable of Cola di Rienzo, a man of the people, and it ended very badly. Always in 1354, the locals, fed and foddered by the nobles and clergy, assaulted the Capitoline Hill with the clear intent to destroy a man who look like a tyrant. It is said that, to try to escape, Cola di Rienzo, who disguises herself as a poor beggar, if only to avoid the anger of the people. Despite this, however, was recognised and killed there immediately. It is curious to note how the bronze statue that you see in the photo was built in 1871, and located here a few years later, in 1886. Why? At a time when the pope, for various reasons, lost control and the temporal power of Rome, the propaganda the risorgimento of the mold anticlerical assumed Cola di Rienzo as a symbol: a fighter for the freedom of Rome from the tyranny of papal and clerical, a man of the people able to lead Rome to eternal glory. Despite its end, in short, Cola di Rienzo symbolised a guy who had a dream: to bring the Eternal City to its former glory...