The capital has mobilized to welcome a million young people who came to celebrate the holy year, from July 28 to August 3. Three of the most important meetings take place in emblematic places in the eternal city: the Saint-Pierre basilica, the Maxime circus and the Vela de Calatrava Tor Vergata. A pilgrimage that combines past and present, center and periphery, for an experience of faith which promises to be unforgettable.
Maria Milvia Morciano – Cité du Vatican
A million young people from 146 countries around the world are welcomed in Rome to celebrate their jubilee. Three sites are at the heart of these days which will end on August 3. The Saint-Pierre basilica is the starting point, the source, the magnet that pushes, today as yesterday, the rivers of pilgrims towards the tomb of the apostle. The second step is at the Maxime circus, a large esplanade in the heart of archaeological Rome, today a collective gathering place. Finally, direction Tor Vergata, the place of the JMJ of the year 2000, in the South-East suburbs, alongside the Vela de Calatrava, a structure which, today, thanks to this occasion, is reborn from its ashes. From the center to the outskirts, past and present, near and distant come together in the same language, that of faith and hope, embodied by the enthusiasm of young participants.
Veduta from the Saint-Pierre basilica.
Pope Francis has always endeavored to create a link between the center and the peripheral areas of the city, and it is for this purpose that he reorganized the ecclesiastical administration of the URB: not “An isolated center and a periphery divided into separate compartments but, in a dynamic vision which is not considering walls but bridges, the diocese of Rome will be designed as a unique center which extends through the four cardinal points“Written the Argentinian pope in the motu owner of October 1, 2024. Pope Léon XIV, with his personal missionary history, ordered his first 11 priests last June, sending them to the outskirts of Rome. Robert Francis Prevost also knows this part of the city well, since he went last year to Tor Bella Monaca to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the local parish, managed by the Augustins, dedicated to Sainte Rita de Cascia.
A place created for the community
In these months of jubilee, the image of the Saint-Pierre basilica filled all eyes, those of pilgrims who came to Rome, but also those who watch photos and videos on social networks or on television. We also know the Maxime circus, an immense open space capable of hosting major collective events such as concerts or outdoor shows. But what is its story and its original function? The circus extends into the Murcia valley, between the Palatine and the Aventine, 600 meters long and 140 meters wide. The sources mention this area by connecting it to the origins of Rome. It is precisely in this valley, during the celebration of to play Called by Romulus in honor of the God consumed, with races of donkeys, horses and mules, that took place the removal of the Sabines, an event which marked the beginnings of the city and its population. The Murcia valley was initially furnished to accommodate crazy tanks during the Tarquin kings, but it was Julius Caesar who built the first masonry seats and gave the building its final shape, from 46 BC.
The monument was restored after a fire and probably supplemented by Auguste, who added an obelisk from the time of Ramses II brought from Egypt, the Flaminian obelisk, which was moved to the Piazza del Popolo by Pope Sixte V in the 16th century. A second obelisk was brought to Rome at the request of the Emperor Constance II and erected on the spine in 357 AD, and is currently next to the Saint-Jean-de-Latran basilica.
Tank races were among the most popular activities in ancient Rome. The structure could accommodate between 260,000 and 300,000 spectators, which made it the largest building dedicated to the show of all time. The Spina, the architectural element which is in the center of the track, was richly decorated with statues, edicts and small temples, and had seven eggs and seven dolphins from which sprayed water, used to count the rounds of the race.
The Maxime circus, seen from the southwest. (Copyright (C) 2022 Stefano Tammaro/Shutterstock.)
After being devastated by fires and restored several times, the show building remained in service to the last races organized by Totila in 549. Over the centuries, it has undergone several transformations and uses, including the construction of a Jewish cemetery and a gasometer in the 19th century. The work of clearance and restoration of the area was carried out between 1911 and the 1930s. Today, the Maxime circus is a place of great historical and cultural importance.
Reinforced concrete and steel for an aerial structure
A sail swollen by the wind, a shark fin: the work of the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, a monument symbolizing the culminating point of the jubilee of young 2025, is visible from afar in the plain crossed by fast roads. The Vela was designed within the framework of the Cité des Sports complex, whose construction began in 2006. A complex, unfinished construction history, which has experienced several interruptions and new use changes, until its restoration in 2025 for the jubilee. Seen from above, in plan, it also looks like a large open shell, giving life to the idea of a welcoming and symbolic architecture.
La Vela de Calatrava à Tor Vergata. (Copyright (C) 2023 Stefano Tammaro/Shutterstock.)
The reinforced concrete, a predilection material of Calatrava, gives plasticity and dynamism by fully exploiting the mechanical characteristics of the building material. The roofs of the Sports Palace and the Water-Polo swimming pool have the same dimensions and forms, reflecting in relation to the longitudinal axis which ideally divides the two arenas and in relation to the transverse axis passing through the arcs in warhead. The cover surfaces were carried out using spatial reticular structures in steel profiles, closed by glass panels. The result is a network that seems to be moving when you look at it from different angles, as if it were an organism living in transformation. An aerial metal intertwining that absorbs and reflects daylight, emerging slightly on the horizon to blend into the clouds of the sky. In this work as imposing as it is delicate, architecture and engineering intertwine and complement each other, just as they integrate and transform between natural forms and advanced technologies.
La Vela de Calatrava. (Copyright (C) 2018 Lucamato/Shutterstock.)
Return to Tor Vergata
The vast suburb of Tor Vergata, covered with meadows, roundabouts and roads that lead to the blue background of Castelli Romani, has already been the scene of an event whose young people from yesterday remember today with an indelible intensity. It was from August 15 to 19, 2000. Pope John Paul II met two million young people there on the 15th World Youth Day, during the jubilee year dedicated to the bimillenae of the birth of Christ. A teeming expanse of faces, voice and colors covered the plain of Tor Vergata and seemed never to end up. Return to this place, 25 years later, in the light of our time, therefore takes on a particular meaning, this allows us to give a breath of hope and also to question us and to reflect on the words that the Polish pope pronounced then during the prayer vigil: “… is it difficult to believe? In the year 2000, is it difficult to believe? Yes, it’s difficult! You can’t deny it. It’s difficult, but with the help of grace it is possible ”.
