Flood Plaques

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Santa Maria sopra Minerva

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The facade of the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva sports a series of graphic plaques that record some of the heights that the floodwaters have reached when the river Tiber has broken its banks.

The oldest plaque dates back to 1422, while the most recent is dated December, 1870. When Rome became the capital of Italy, in 1871, high embankments were built along both sides of the river, thus bringing to an end the flooding of the city.

Flood Plaque to Pope Clement VIII

The flood of December 1598, the most damaging ever recorded in Rome, killed an estimated 3,000 people, which was around 3 percent  of the city’s population at the time.

The plaque records: REDVX RECEPTA PONT / IFEX FERRARIA / NON ANTE TAM SVPERBI / HVCVSQVE TYBRIDIS / INSANIENTES EXECRA / TVR VORTICES / ANNO DNI M D XCVIII / VIIII KAL IANVARII (On his return from the capture of Ferrara, the Pontiff pronounced a curse upon the waters of the Tiber, never before so haughty, which were raging as far as this in the year of the Lord 1598, the ninth day before the Kalends of January). 

Flood Plaque to Pope Clement VII

The plaque illustrated above dates back to the time of Clement VII (r. 1523-34), the pope most famous in English circles for denying King Henry VIII a divorce from his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon. The plaque reads: ANNO DNI M D XXX /  OCTAVO IDVS OCTOBRIS PONT / VERO SANTISSIMI DNI / CLEMEN PAPE ANNO VII / HVC TIBER ASCENDIT IAMQ / OBRVTA TOTA FVISSET / ROMA NISI HVIC CELEREM / VIRGO TVLISSET OPEM (In the year of the Lord 1530, on the eighth day before the Ides of October, in the seventh year of the holiest lord Pope Clement VII,  the Tiber rose to this point, and all Rome would have been overwhelmed, had not the Virgin given swift aid). 

Flood Plaque, 1495

The plaque to the flood of December 1495 reads: ANN CHR M V D NON DECEMB /  AVCTVS IN IMMENSVM TIBERIS DVM / PROFLVIT ALVEO / EXTVLIT HVC TVMIDAS TVRBIDVS / AMNIS AQVAS (In the year of Christ, 1495, on the Nones of December, as the Tiber, enormously swollen, overflowed its bed, the churning stream raised its waters to this level).

Flood Plaque 1495, Sant' Eustachio

The flood of 1495 is also recorded on facade of the nearby church of Sant' Eustachio.

Flood Plaque (1277), Arco dei Banchi

The oldest flood plaque in Rome, which dates back to November 6th 1277, can be found in the Arco dei Banchi, a narrow passage near the Castel Sant' Angelo.  ​​​

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