ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ceremony's use of urban space and architecture, and the spatial interaction between the ephemeral city and the real. During the period in which the ceremony retained the features of an entry, the Vatican was regarded as a different settlement from Rome, isolated and protected by its own fortifications on the west bank of the Tiber. The most densely populated, vital and rich part of the emergent urban area was concentrated within the bend of the river, while the ancient centre became populated by impoverished inhabitants and the relics of major monuments. The size of streets and squares in the medieval period came to seem mean and inadequate compared to the requirements of Renaissance courts. Alexander's ceremonial occasion was intended from the beginning to be seen as a revival of the Roman triumph, imbued with classical culture in every respect, in all probability in order to meet the wishes of the pope himself.
