Editing Pope Sixtus V (section)

===Reforms in the city of Rome===
The terrible condition in which [[Pope Gregory XIII]] had left the [[Papal States]] called for prompt and stern measures. Sixtus proceeded with an almost ferocious severity against the prevailing lawlessness. Thousands of [[brigand]]s were brought to justice: within a short time, the country was again quiet and safe.<ref name=EB1911/> It was claimed<ref>Ludwig Pastor, ''History of the Popes'', St. Louis, 1898/99, vol 21, p.83</ref> that there were more heads on spikes across the [[Ponte Sant'Angelo]] than melons for sale in the marketplace. And clergy and nuns were executed if they broke their vows of chastity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duffy |first=Eamon |url=https://archive.org/details/00book1593273669/mode/1up |title=Saints & Sinners : a History of the Popes |date=2006 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-17503-5 |edition=Third|location=New Haven |pages=218–222}}</ref>

Next Sixtus set to work to repair the finances. By the sale of offices, the establishment of a new "Monti" and by levying new taxes, he accumulated a vast surplus, which he stored up against certain specified emergencies, such as a [[crusade]] or the defence of the [[Holy See]]. Sixtus prided himself upon his hoard, but the method by which it had been amassed was financially unsound: some of the taxes proved ruinous, and the withdrawal of so much money from circulation could not fail to cause distress.<ref name=EB1911/>

Immense sums were spent upon public works,<ref name=EB1911/> in carrying through the comprehensive planning that had come to fruition during his retirement, bringing water to the waterless hills via his new [[Aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]], the [[Acqua Felice]] which fed twenty-seven new fountains; laying out new arteries in Rome, which connected the great basilicas, even setting his engineer-architect [[Domenico Fontana]] to replan the [[Colosseum]] as a silk-spinning factory housing its workers.

Inspired by the ideal of the Renaissance city, Pope Sixtus V's ambitious urban reform programme transformed the old environment to emulate the "long straight streets, wide regular spaces, uniformity and repetitiveness of structures, lavish use of commemorative and ornamental elements, and maximum visibility from both linear and circular perspective."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Public Lettering|url=https://archive.org/details/publicletterings0000petr|url-access=registration|last=Petrucci|first=Armando|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1993|location=Chicago|page=[https://archive.org/details/publicletterings0000petr/page/36 36]|isbn=9780226663869 }}</ref> The Pope set no limit to his plans, and achieved much in his short pontificate, always carried through at top speed: the completion of the dome of [[St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's]]; the [[loggia]] of Sixtus in the [[Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano]]; the chapel of the Praesepe in [[Santa Maria Maggiore]]; additions or repairs to the [[Quirinal Palace|Quirinal]], [[Lateran Palace|Lateran]] and [[Apostolic Palace|Vatican]] palaces; the erection of four [[List of obelisks in Rome|obelisk]]s, including that in [[Saint Peter's Square]]; the opening of six streets; the restoration of the [[Roman aqueduct|aqueduct]] of [[Septimius Severus]] ("[[Acqua Felice]]");<ref name=EB1911/> the integration of the [[Leonine City]] in Rome as XIV [[rione]] ([[Borgo (rione of Rome)|Borgo]]).<ref>{{cite journal| url = https://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-117| title = Della trasportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano et delle fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V, fatte dal caualier Domenico Fontana architetto di Sua Santita, In Roma, 1590| year = 1590| doi = 10.3931/e-rara-117| last1 = Fontana| first1 = Domenico| publisher = appresso Domenico Basa}}</ref>

Besides numerous roads and bridges,<ref name=EB1911/> he improved the city's air by financing the reclamation of the [[Pontine Marshes]]. Good progress was made, with more than {{convert|9500|acre|km2}} reclaimed and opened to agriculture and manufacture. The project was abandoned upon his death.
[[Image:Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae- The Septizodium MET DP870380.jpg|thumb|A fragment of the Septizonium is shown in this engraving dating to 1582.]]

[[File:Stourhead_PopesCabinet_NT_CCBYSA_open.jpg|thumb|Pope's Cabinet at Stourhead, built for Sixtus V]]
Sixtus had no appreciation of antiquities, which were employed as raw material to serve his urbanistic and Christianising programs: [[Trajan's Column]] and the [[Column of Marcus Aurelius]] (at the time misidentified as the [[Column of Antoninus Pius]]) were made to serve as pedestals for the statues of SS Peter and Paul; the [[Minerva]] of the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]] was converted into an emblem of ''Christian Rome''; the [[Septizodium]] of [[Septimius Severus]] was demolished for building materials.<ref name=EB1911/> When he was taken to a cross in a church in Rome that was supposedly miraculously bleeding, Sixtus suspected that it was a fake. He took an axe and said "As Christ I adore you; as wood I cut you". He split the cross and revealed that it contained sponges soaked in blood within it.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://aleteia.org/2017/02/04/popes-are-funny-too-have-you-heard-these-9-amusing-anecdotes | title=Popes are funny too: Have you heard these 9 amusing anecdotes? |publisher=Aleteia |date=2017-02-04 |accessdate=2025-05-08}}</ref>

The spatial organization, monumental inscriptions and restorations throughout the city reinforced the control, surveillance, and authority that alluded to his power.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Drucker|first=Johanna|year=2010|title=Species of Espaces and other spurious concepts addressed to reading invisible features of signs within systems of relations|journal=Design and Culture|volume=2|issue=2|pages=135–153|doi=10.2752/175470710X12696138525541|s2cid=144253902}}</ref>