Monuments of Rome - Piazza Bocca della Verità

The square is named after the famous Mouth of Truththe famous mask placed in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. According to a well-known Roman legend, the menacing mouth would eat the hand of anyone who placed their hand inside it and lied

The square is in the centre of the ancient mercantile area of Rome between the river port, near the Tiber Island, and the Emporium.
The Foro Olitorio (or Vegetable Forum) and the Foro Boario were located here; bankers and moneychangers conducted their business in the Velabro .

After the fall of the empire, under Byzantine influence, it was the centre of the Greek colony.
Executions by guillotine were carried out here until 1868. It was here that the famous Mastro Titta, who from 1796 to 1864 became infamous for cutting off 516 heads, operated! Today, the square boasts a unique ensemble of monuments: two still-preserved ancient temples, an 18th century fountain and an early medieval church with a splendid bell tower.

The so-called Temple of Vesta is the oldest Roman marble temple with a circular plan and dates back to the 2nd century B.C. Erroneously attributed to Vesta because of its similar plan to the temple of the same name in the Roman Forum, it was actually dedicated to Hercules. It was used as a church and the interior walls are frescoed with paintings from the 15th century. To the side stands the temple of Portunus, deity of the river port, an example of Greco-Roman architecture dating back to the 2nd century BC.
Home until the 19th century to the church of St Mary of Egypt, a former courtesan and therefore the protector of women of ill repute.
To decorate the square in 1715 the Pope Clement XI he had a late Baroque fountain placed there by Carlo Bizzaccheri, two tritons with intertwined tails lift two shells at the centre of which the mountains, symbol of the Albani family, launch a gush into the air