Former road in Rome
Borgo Nuovo, originally known as via Alessandrina, also named via Recta or via Pontificum, was a road in the city of Rome, Italy, important for historical and architectural reasons.
Built by Pope Alexander VI Borgia (r. 1492 – 1503) for the holy year of 1500, the road became one of the main centers of the high Renaissance in Rome. Borgo Nuovo was demolished together with the surrounding quarter in 1936–37 due to the construction of Via della Conciliazione.
Location.
Located in the Borgo "rione", the straight road stretched in E–W direction, between "Piazza Pia", which marks the entrance of the quarter near the right bank of the Tiber, and the north edge of "Piazza Rusticucci", which until its demolition was the vestibule of Saint Peter's Square.
At about two thirds of its length, Borgo Nuovo crossed "Piazza Scossacavalli", the center of the Borgo.
Together with the nearby road of Borgo Vecchio, of probable Roman origin, Borgo Nuovo delimited the so–called "spina" (the name derives from its resemblance with the median strip of a Roman circus), composed of several blocks elongated in E–W direction between the castle and Saint Peter.
Naming.
The road was named "Via Alexandrina", "Via Pontificum" or "Via Recta", later "Borgo Nuovo". The first denomination came from Pope Alexander VI who erected it; the second because it became the first part of the "Via Papalis", the road that the new pope had to ride to reach St. John; the third ("straight road") from its layout, a rarity in Rome at that time; the fourth was chosen in accordance with the nearby road of Borgo Vecchio.
The name "Via Alessandrina" fell into disuse after 1570, when Cardinal Michele Bonelli, nicknamed "Cardinal Alessandrino" from his hometown in Piedmont, opened the road in the Monti "rione" which took its name from him.
History.
Renaissance.
In the mid–15th century, at the beginning of the Renaissance, the connection between Rome and Saint Peter were secured by two ancient roads, Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Santo Spirito, both linking the Castle to the square in front of Old Saint Peter's Basilica. To raise the traffic capacity, another road leading to Saint Peter from Ponte Sant'Angelo was built by Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471 – 84) for the holy year of 1475: Borgo Sant'Angelo, also known from his founder as "via Sistina". This path ran just south of the "Passetto" (the covered passage linking the Vatican with the Castle); anyway, also this road was not sufficient to solve the traffic problem. 
At the end of the 15th century, Alexander VI, whose power was at the time contested by several of the noble Roman families and by French king Charles VIII (r. 1483 – 98) (who in 1494 had occupied the city, while the pope remained barricaded in the Castel Sant'Angelo), decided to restructure the citadel of Borgo and the castle. In this context, Castel Sant'Angelo assumed the role of hinge between the city and the citadel, and the need arose to build a straight road between the castle and the Apostolic Palace on the Vatican hill. During the last two Jubilees, which had taken place in 1450 and 1475, the enormous inflow of pilgrims had caused several traffic problems in the Borgo; because of that, in order to solve the problem, during the papal consistory of 16 November 1498 the pope gave the task to rationalize the paths which led to St. Peter, asking Cardinal Girolamo Riario to take the lead and consult experts. On 20 February 1499 the pope asked Riario:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;"...ut a magistris viarum et architectis quantum foret impense ad dirigendam viam a Porta Castri ad Palatium usque intelligent ac sibi postea referret."
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;... that they should take note of, and afterwards report to him, the cost incurred by roadbuilders and architects in making a road from the Castle Gate to the Palace. 
North of Borgo Vecchio a winding lane run between houses, gardens and ancient walls; At about one third of its length (coming from the Tiber), the path was blocked by a large Roman funerary monument, the "Meta Romuli", considered as the resting place of the mythical first king of the city. This was a pyramid similar to that of Cestius, still existing near Porta Ostiense and regarded by the Romans of that time as the graveyard of Remus. Riario, with the technical advice of several architects (among them Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and Giuliano da Sangallo) decided to rectify this lane and a new road, the "Via Alexandrina" or "Recta", was opened after an intense work six months long, started in April 1499. Giovanni Burcardo (Johannes Burckardt from Strassburg, Master of Ceremonies of the pope), records in this way in the "Liber Notarum" (his diary) on 24 December 1499 the opening of the new road:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;"Hodie peracto prandio completa est ruptura vie nove recta a parte Castri Santi Angeli ad portam Palatii Apostolici et per eas venerunt omnes cardinales" 
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;"Today after lunch was completed the opening of the new straight road between Castel Sant'Angelo and the gate of the Apostolic Palace, and through it all the cardinals came"
On that day the pope ordered the "Carriera Sancta" (the future Borgo Vecchio) to be closed off, so as to force the traffic along the newly inaugurated route. The road connected the Castle's gate with the gate of the Apostolic palace; unlike the near Borgo Vecchio, it was not a processional path, but a direct link between "Castrum" and "Palatium", parallel to the "Passetto", the covered passage which allowed the pope to escape to the castle in case of danger, and that would have been used few years later by pope Clement VII (r. 1523 – 34) escaping in night robe after Frundsberg's Landsknechts.
The design of the road was completed with the opening in Vatican of a new gate, the "Porta Santa" which was going to substitute the "Porta Aurea" of St. John in Lateran; this gate allowed the pilgrims coming from Borgo Nuovo to meet at once the "Altare della Veronica", the most venerated relic of the Christianity. In this way, the Via Alessandrina became the first straight with a backdrop in Rome, a model that would find application under Pope Julius II (r. 1503 – 13) with Via Giulia and almost a century later especially with Sixtus V (r. 1585 – 90).
The completion of the "Via Alessandrina" required the demolition of several ancient buildings: among them, the "Meta Romuli", linked to the traditions about the tomb of Saint Peter.
The new road became the first tract of the "Via Papalis", the road that each pope rode on the back of a mule during the "Cavalcata del possesso" ("Possession ride"), the ride between Saint Peter and Saint John immediately after his election to take ownership of his office of Rome's bishop. It was also used for popular happenings as horses, buffaloes, donkeys or men races, all favorite entertainments of the Borgia pope; because of that, Borgo Nuovo remained unpaved until before 1509, during the papacy of Julius II. 
In order to finance the construction, the owners of already existing houses were subjected to pay a special tax, since the new road would have increased the value of their real estate; the rest of the expenses had to be paid by the "magistri viarum" (the officers in charge with the road maintenance). On the other side, in order to develop the road's surroundings, people willing to erect buildings at least 5 "canne" ( ca.) high along the new road received special privileges, such as tax exemptions. 
Cardinals, noble families and rich bourgeois made use of this opportunity, erecting palaces and houses, designed in the new classicist style of Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and Donato Bramante, two among the architects involved in the road's design, and Borgo Nuovo became soon one of the most fashionable roads of the city. During the Renaissance many among the new houses of the quarter were decorated with paintings (fresco and graffito). As of today, the only surviving decorated house in the Borgo is the one along Vicolo del Campanile, a former side lane of Borgo Nuovo.
The work on the road continued under the direction of Antonio da Sangallo the Elder also with Pope Leo X (r. 1513 – 21), who financed it with the huge sum of 1,444 ducati.
Baroque and Modern Age.
During the reign of Pope Alexander VII (r. 1655 – 67), in the context of the construction of St. Peter's Square Gian Lorenzo Bernini integrated Borgo Nuovo in the project of the new square. The optical axis given by Borgo Nuovo was overturned with respect to the axis of the Basilica, defined by the obelisk of the circus of Caligola erected in 1595 by Domenico Fontana before the center of the facade of the ancient basilica; this effect was obtained by creating in front of the basilica a symmetrical trapezoidal space through the construction of the two covered paths ("corridori"). The north "corridore" of Maderno's St. Peter's façade, leading to the Scala Regia, was considered by Bernini as a covered prosecution of the road: the right arm of the colonnade stops just before the axis of the road in order to not interrupt the line of sight between the road and the northern "corridore". In this way, the main axis of Borgo turns into the secondary axis of Saint Peter's Square, and is duplicated for reasons of symmetry by building the southern "corridore". 
Around 1660, after the construction of the colonnade of Bernini, the first block of the "spina" between Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo, named "isola del Priorato" after the building hosting the Priory of the Knights of Rhodes, was pulled down by Bernini in order to create a space–the Piazza Rusticucci–which allowed the full view of Saint Peter's dome, hidden by Maderno's nave. Because of that Borgo Nuovo was deprived of its western end.
At the beginning of the 19th century, when Rome was part of the First French Empire, the prefect of the city, de Tournon, included in his program of urban renewal the demolition of the "spina", and thus of Borgo Nuovo. Anyway, at the fall of Napoleon only the first three houses at the east end of the road had been demolished; after the comeback of the pope the previous situation was restored. At the east end of the "spina" between Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo, in 1850 a new building, palazzo Sauve, was erected; this replaced a house which had been pulled down during the Roman Republic of 1849. On the east façade of the building a large fountain, the "Fontana dei Delfini" ("Dolphins' Fountain") was erected by Pope Pius IX (r. 1846 – 78) in 1861, marking the beginning of the "spina". The palace was demolished in 1936 and the fountain was moved to the Vatican City in 1958.
In 1858 at the beginning of the Borghi Pius IX let build by Luigi Poletti two twin buildings that–together with the dolphins' fountain–provided a scenic entrance to the Leonine city.
During all this period, and until its demolition, Borgo Nuovo was a prestigious, touristic and busy road, unlike the nearby Borgo Vecchio, which was secluded, familiar and simple.
Demolition.
Between 1934 and 1936, when the project of Via della Conciliazione was developed, architects Marcello Piacentini and Attilio Spaccarelli chose to give to the new road the alignment of the nearby Borgo Vecchio road, and not of Borgo Nuovo. This resolution, made because both of reasons of perspective and to avoid the demolition of the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri (facing the south side of Piazza Scossacavalli and parallel to the south side of Borgo Vecchio) caused the destruction of almost all the houses and the palaces of the road. The "spina", with the whole south side of Borgo Nuovo, was demolished between 29 October 1936 and 8 October 1937. On the north side of the road, only the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, the Palazzo Torlonia in Piazza Scossacavalli and palazzo Latmiral, an undistinguished 19th century building lying between them, were spared. To mask the different alignment of the 3 surviving edifices with respect both to the new adjacent blocks and to those along the south side of the new road (which were aligned with Borgo Vecchio), a double row of obelisks surmounted by lanterns were put in place; the Romans wittily nicknamed them "le supposte" ("the suppositories"), noticing that Via della Conciliazione looked now like the monumental entrance to a cemetery.
Notable buildings and landmarks.
At the entrance