Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti (the Spanish Steps)

The idea of a stair on this slope is documented as early as 1559, and twenty years later the Camera Apostolica bought the land. In 1660 the bequest of the Frenchman Stefano Gueffier produced the first designs, among them one attributed to Bernini's workshop that proposed the concave and convex walls and the pincer ramps. A dispute between the Papal State and the French crown over ownership of the ground delayed the work; Clement XI held a competition in 1717, building began under Innocent XIII, whose Conti eagles appear with the French fleurs-de-lis on the cippi, and it was finished under Benedict XIII in 1726. The Sovrintendenza records a full restoration in 1995, a further restoration from October 2015, a reopening on 22 September 2016 and the stair walkable again from 23 September 2016.