Rome, city of hope: The sites of the Jubilee of Youth

By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic

By María Milvia Morciano, Vatican News

VATICAN CITY | One million young pilgrims from 146 countries around the world have arrived in Rome to celebrate their Jubilee. Three key locations will stand out during the days leading up to 3 August.

First is St. Peter’s Basilica: the origin, the source, the magnet that, as in times past, draws countless pilgrims to the tomb of the Apostle. The second stop is the Circus Maximus, a vast open space at the geometric center of the city and the heart of archaeological Rome, now a place for collective gathering. Finally, Tor Vergata—the same site that hosted the World Youth Day of 2000. Located on the outskirts of the city, in the southeastern periphery, it is a structure that today, thanks to this occasion, has been revived and brought back to life.

 

Three places of connection

These locations mark the extremes between the center and the periphery. They were not simply chosen for logistical reasons but rather for the physical embodiment, in a way, of a spiritual dream. These three places connect two opposite ends of the urban fabric. Past and present, near and far, come together in a single language: that of faith and hope, embodied by the enthusiasm of the young participants.

Pope Francis always worked to connect Rome's city center with its most remote areas, and with this goal, he reorganized the ecclesiastical administration: not “an isolated center and a periphery divided into separate compartments, but, in a dynamic vision that imagines no walls but bridges, the Diocese of Rome will be conceived as a single center expanding through the four cardinal points,” he wrote in the Motu Proprio of 1 October 2024.

Pope Leo XIV, with his personal history as a missionary and concern for the marginalized, ordained his first 11 diocesan priests last June, sending them to the outskirts of Rome. He knows this area well, having visited Tor Bella Monaca last year as a cardinal to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the local parish, run by the Augustinians and dedicated to Saint Rita of Cascia.

 

A place created for the community

During this Jubilee year, St. Peter's Basilica has been a symbol forever in everyone's minds, whether they be pilgrims visiting Rome or people watching from home through social media or television.

Another icon of the Eternal City is the Circus Maximus—a vast open space capable of hosting large-scale collective events such as concerts and outdoor gatherings. But what is its history and original purpose? The Circus stretches across the Murcia Valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, measuring 600 meters long and 140 meters wide.

Sources link this area to the origins of Rome. It was in this very valley, during the games organized by Romulus in honor of the god Consus—with races of donkeys, horses, and mules—that the Rape of the Sabine Women took place, an event marking the city’s founding and settlement. The Murcia Valley was initially developed to host chariot races during the time of the Tarquin kings, but it was the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar who built the first masonry seats and gave the structure its definitive form around 46 B.C.

The monument was restored after a fire and likely completed by Emperor Augustus, who added an obelisk from Egypt dating to the time of Ramses II—the Flaminian Obelisk—which was moved to Piazza del Popolo by Pope Sixtus V in the 16th century. A second obelisk was brought to Rome at the request of Emperor Constantius II and erected on the spina (the long central barrier that ran down the middle of the racetrack) in 357 A.D. It now stands near the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

Chariot races were among ancient Rome’s most popular activities, with twelve chariots completing seven laps around the central spina between the two finish lines. The structure could hold between 260,000 and 300,000 spectators, making it the largest building ever dedicated to this spectacle. The spina was richly decorated with statues, shrines, small temples, and  seven eggs and seven dolphins from which water flowed and were used to count the laps of the race. The carceres—the chariot starting gates—were equipped with a mechanism allowing them to open simultaneously.

The outer facade was divided into three levels, the lowest featuring arches. The seating area rested on masonry structures that housed corridors and stairways leading to the various seating areas. After being devastated by fires and restored multiple times, the site remained in use until the last games held by Totila, the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, in 549.

Over the centuries, the Circus Maximus underwent various transformations and was used for different reasons, including the construction of a Jewish cemetery and a gasometer in the 19th century. The area was cleared and restored between 1911 and the 1930s. Today, it is a site of great historical and cultural importance.

 

A concrete structure that moves

A sail waving in the wind, a shark’s fin can be seen even from afar in the rural plains of Rome crisscrossed by highways. Completed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, this monument symbolizes the culmination of the 2025 Youth Jubilee. The Sail was designed as part of the Sports City complex, whose construction began in 2006. Its complex and unfinished construction history suffered several interruptions and changes of use, until its restoration in 2025 in preparation for the Jubilee of Hope. Viewed from above, its floor plan also resembles a large open shell, further reinforcing the sense of welcoming and symbolic architecture.

Reinforced concrete, Calatrava’s preferred material, allows for fluid, dynamic forms, fully harnessing the material’s structural capabilities. The roofs of the sports pavilion and water polo pool share the same dimensions and shapes, mirrored along the longitudinal axis dividing the two stadiums and the transverse axis passing through the arches of the spine.

They were built using spatial lattice steel structures enclosed by glass panels. The result is a network that appears to move when seen from different perspectives, like a living organism in transformation. An ethereal metal mesh that absorbs and reflects daylight, emerging delicately on the horizon and blending into the clouds. In this work, as imposing as it is delicate, architecture and engineering intertwine and complement each other, integrating and transforming between natural forms and advanced technologies.

 

Return to Tor Vergata

Tor Vergata was already home to an event that still lives in the memories of many people. From August 15 - 19, 2000, Pope John Paul II joined two million young people for the 15th World Youth Day during the Jubilee Year dedicated to the bimillennium of Christ’s birth.

A multitude of faces, voices, and colors covered the plain of Tor Vergata. Returning to this place 25 years later, in light of our times, has special meaning. It offers a breath of hope and encourages reflection on the words the saintly Polish Pope spoke during that Prayer Vigil: “Is it difficult to believe in a world like this? Is it difficult to believe in the year 2000? Yes! It is difficult. There’s no point in hiding it. It’s difficult, but with the help of grace, it is possible.”