The Piazza del Popolo (Veduta della Piazza del Popolo), ca. 1750, Etching, image: 14 15/16 x 21 1/4 in. (38 x 54 cm), Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, Mogliano Veneto 1720?1778 Rome), Until the construction of railways in Rome in the nineteenth century, visitors entered the city through the Piazza del Popolo. The area acquired its monumental profile under Pope Sixtus V, who oversaw the construction of twin churches opposite the gateway into the square and the placement of an Egyptian obelisk in the center