Caesar and Augustus built a wooden stadium in the Campus Martius which was restored by Nero and reconstructed by Domitian in AD 86 which seating for 20,000 spectators. In the 3rd century, when fire had damaged the Colosseum, this stadium for a while was used as an amphitheatre.

Today's Piazza Navona in Rome still bears the ancient shape of the stadium which once stood there. The piazza is home of the Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Fiumi), built by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as well as the Neptune Fountain (see picture below). At each end of the Piazza there are small fountains. As you stroll the piazza, you sense the opulence and beauty that filled Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries. You can also see another one of Bernini's famous sculptures--a large-tusked elephant supporting an Egyptian obelisk, as well as the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone

In the center of the piazza is Bernini's most spectacular fountain, la Fontana dei Fiumi, erected in 1651. It features a central rocky structure that supports an obelisk that was an ancient Roman imitation of the Egyptian form. Around this structure are four giant statues by Bernini's pupils following his designs representing the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges, and the Rio della Plata, each representing one of the four quarters of the world. These statues have quite lifelike positions and have such movement to them that they seem to be gesticulating.

To the western side of the piazza stands Church of Sant'Angese in Agone. The church was commissioned by Pope Innocent X in 1652 on the site which is wider than it is long. Not long after the project was initiated Francesco Borromini took control of it and was responsible for the completion of the dome and building the twin belltowers. The concave facade was also his design. It is thought that one of the statues in Bernini's fontana dei fiumi is covering his face so as not to look at the church. This was thought to be the case because of an intense rivalry between the two artists. However, the dates of the construction of each showns that the fountain was built first. Strangely there is a solitary statue above the facade of the church that is looking away, when it would be normal for it to be facing the fountain.

It is the site of the Stadium of Domitian, also known as the Circus Agonalis, was a mass-entertainment sports venue located to the north of the Campus Martius in Rome. The Stadium was used for the presentation of the agones, Latin for "games."

The Stadium was commissioned around 80 AD by the Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus as a smaller, more readily manageable facsimile of the vastly larger, 250,000 capacity Circus Maximus. It became part of a monumental civic re-building undertaking after a devastating fire that had swept the Field of Mars in 79 AD.

The Stadium was U-shaped. It rose an estimated 100 feet at its outer margins, gradually sloping to a 15-foot rim at the parameter of the arena floor. This arrangement allowed for a maximum viewing, regardless of seated position. The open end was sealed by a heroic, staggered one- and two-story entrance gallery. At the height of its use, the Stadium was capable of comfortably seating an estimated 30,000.

The Stadium of Domitian comprised the northernmost sentinel of the “Martian Triad”, a series of impressive public buildings designed to satisfy the various tastes of the Roman public. From north to south: the Stadium itself; the intimate Odeon of Domitian, used for recitals, song and orations; and the vast Theater of Pompey, the site of the murder of Julius Caesar.

The Piazza Navona adheres perfectly to the expanse of the interior arena of the Stadium. The sweep of buildings that embrace the Piazza, including the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, are largely built over, and partially incorporate, the Stadium's original seating arrangements.

Despite the curious assonance, the name of this church is unrelated to the agony of the martyr Saint Ines. In agone was the ancient name of piazza Navona ("piazza in agone"), and meant instead (from Greek) "in the site of the competitions", because piazza Navona was an ancient stadium on the Greek model for footraces. From "inagone", the popular use and pronunciation changed the name into "Navona", but other roads around kept the original name (like the Corsia Agonale, a short road that connects with the Palazzo Madama.

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