On September 18, 2025, in the historic Ponte district, between Piazza Navona and Castel Sant’Angelo, the Ponte Art and Design District, Rome’s first permanent district dedicated to design, contemporary art, artistic crafts and antiques, was born. The project, promoted by the Roma Faber association and supported by the Lazio Region, the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage and Rome’s Municipality I, under the patronage of the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale, networks twenty-eight Roman excellences, leading universities of design and architecture, companies in the design sector and the high-level realities of the hotellerie, to which is added the full pedestrianization of Via dei Banchi Nuovi, a 200-meter stretch that becomes the beating heart of the district.
The goal is to enhance the creative heritage of the district and, at the same time, build an active network with academic and interactive events, workshops, master classes and open visits, which weave together the centuries-old manufacturing memory of the Capital and the most contemporary experiments.
“The district was born from a vision,” explains Patrizia Corvaglia, designer and president of the Roma Faber association. “To transform a historic district of Rome into a place where design, high craftsmanship, art and design innovation dialogue with the urban context, contributing to economic development and the enhancement of the territory’s identity. I firmly believe that only by bringing out the value, uniqueness and complexity of creative processes is it possible to build a new centrality of made in Italy, design and artistic craftsmanship that is able to speak to the world with languages that are current but rooted in a living and cultured tradition.”
September 18-24 will focus the first week of free meetings, followed by an annual calendar of events through July 2026: Inlay, ceramics, mosaic, goldsmithing and restoration workshops, round tables and talks on circular economy, urban regeneration and technological innovation, monthly open visits to historic workshops to introduce the goldsmiths, designers, contemporary art and antiques galleries, mosaicists, restorers and marble artisans who populate the district, live painting sessions and urban regeneration workshops that will transform the district into a place of collaborative ideas and actions, sharing of urban and educational practices of collective reactivation.
The project also lives online, with a digital platform collecting video interviews, photo galleries and constant updates on ongoing initiatives.
The link with history is strong: Via dei Banchi Nuovi, once “Via Papalis,” was crossed by the pontiffs in the solemn ceremonial procession of installation. Precisely to have direct contact with Vatican patrons, the best artists and craftsmen of the time had their workshops here. Among these workshops, during the Renaissance, was that of the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, which today houses the atelier of jewel designer Patrizia Corvaglia, president of the Roma Faber association promoter of the district, who today, 500 years later, works bronze with the same lost-wax technique that was used by Cellini.
Public institutions: patronage of the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale, Municipality I, Lazio Region, Superintendency of Cultural Heritage.
Universities: Accademia Italiana, Borromini Institute, Quasar Institute for Advanced Design, Tools for Culture, University of Arkansas.
Festival: Rome Future Week
Photos by Francesco Marano, Eller Studio.
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| Rome, permanent district of design, arts and crafts and antiques born in historic Ponte district |
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