This point sits in Campo de' Fiori, a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona that still holds a daily market.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · A two-minute read · 1219 BC–1889
The short answer
Campo de' Fiori in Rome was the papal courts' regular execution ground for more than two centuries, most famously where the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy on 17 February 1600. Once an open meadow, it became a paved crossing in 1456 and now hosts a daily market.
Statue of Giordano Bruno in Campo de Fiori, Rome, Italy. This monument was erected in 1889 by Italian Masonic circles in the site where he was burned alive for opposing the Catholic church authority. — 2003 · user:Sputnikcccp~commonswiki · CC BY-SA 3.0
16th century to 1798
Heretics and poisoners were burned in this square
Campo de' Fiori is a square now packed with market stalls and café tables, and it used to be Rome's regular execution ground. For more than two centuries, the papal courts sent the condemned here to die in public. People were burned, hanged, or tortured with the corda, a rope method that dislocated a victim's shoulders by dropping them from a height.
The most famous death came on 17 February 1600. Giordano Bruno, a philosopher and former Dominican friar, was burned at the stake for heresy. He had argued the universe was infinite and full of distant suns, a claim the Roman Inquisition would not accept. All his written works were later banned by the Church.
Giordano Bruno was not the only one. A Franciscan friar named Fra Celestino of Verona had been burned here just months earlier, in 1599. In 1553, the reformist friar Giovanni Mollio met the same fate. In 1624, the Holy Office dug up the corpse of Marco Antonio de Dominis, a former archbishop who had died in prison, and burned it in the square anyway. Five women convicted of selling poison, including Gironima Spana, were executed here between 1659 and 1660.
The square's name has a gentler legend attached. Some say it honors Flora, a woman loved by the Roman general Pompey, whose theater once stood nearby. Historians say that before the 15th century, this was simply an open meadow full of flowers.
1456 to 1600s
A flowery meadow was paved into a papal route
Long before the killings, this stretch of ground was open country. The name Campo de' Fiori means "Field of Flowers." Historians say it comes from a meadow that grew wild here before the 15th century, full of flowers and small gardens. A gentler story says it honors Flora, a woman loved by the Roman general Pompey, whose theater once stood nearby. Historians favor the meadow explanation.
In 1456, Pope Callixtus III had the square paved. Pope Sixtus IV later folded it into the Via Papale, the route popes took between the Vatican and the Lateran basilica. Pope Sixtus IV added Via Florea and Via Pellegrino to carry the traffic through. The paving and the road turned a flowery meadow into one of the busiest crossings in Rome, lined with inns and shops, and eventually into a stage for public death.
1869 to now
A daily market replaced the square's old use
The square had already changed use by then. In 1869, the daily vegetable and fish market that used to fill Piazza Navona moved here instead. Vendors still set up stalls every morning except Sunday, selling produce, flowers, and fish under awnings a few feet from where the stake once stood. The square has never had a church of its own, the only major historic piazza in central Rome without one.
9 June 1889
Freemasons raised Bruno's statue facing the Vatican
Nearly three centuries after Bruno's execution, Roman Freemasons commissioned the sculptor Ettore Ferrari to build him a monument. The Freemasons placed it on the exact spot where he had burned. The statue shows Bruno standing, hooded and defiant, facing toward the Vatican. The Church had opposed the idea for years, since Bruno's death had been its own verdict on heresy. The monument was built anyway, and it stands there today.
Market stalls now surround the bronze figure of Giordano Bruno, standing on the spot where he was burned.
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Prehistoric
1219 BC to 1015 BC
Radiocarbon samples from the Sant'Omobono excavation site, about 950 meters away, date human activity there to between 1219 and 1015 BC, among the oldest traces found anywhere near this ground.
From the late 13th century the Orsini family built towers and crenellated walls along the square's southeast flank, part of their stronghold here for centuries.
A rutted meadow became a paved public square in 1456 under Cardinal Ludovico Trevisani, triggering the construction of the Cancelleria and Farnese palaces nearby.
Vannozza dei Cattanei, the most famous mistress of Pope Alexander VI, owned the Taverna della Vacca at the square's southwest corner, her family seal still visible on its facade.
The Holy Office burned copies of the Talmud in the square on 9 September 1553, the first day of the Jewish New Year, an event later marked with a plaque quoting medieval lamentation poetry.
Giacomo della Porta's 1590 fountain was so fouled by market vendors washing and dumping produce in it that officials capped it with a travertine lid in 1622, earning it the nickname la Terrina.
A Franciscan friar from Verona, Fra Celestino, was burned at the stake here for heresy in 1599, just months before Bruno met the same fate on the same ground.
On 17 February 1600 the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake here for heresy, condemned by the Roman Inquisition for denying core Catholic doctrines.
The body of Marco Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Split, was dug up and burned at the stake in the square's center in 1624, three months after he died in prison at Castel Sant'Angelo.
Sculptor Ettore Ferrari's bronze monument was unveiled on this spot in 1889, deliberately positioned to face the Vatican as a symbol of defiance, its base reading 'here where the fire burned.'
Campo de' Fiori served as Rome's regular execution ground for more than two centuries, where the condemned were burned, hanged, or tortured with the corda. Giordano Bruno was burned there on 17 February 1600 for heresy, and others including Fra Celestino, Giovanni Mollio, and five women convicted of poisoning met the same fate there.
What was here before Campo de' Fiori became a square?
Before the 15th century this ground was an open meadow full of flowers and small gardens, which gave the square its name, meaning 'Field of Flowers.' Pope Callixtus III had it paved in 1456.
Why was Giordano Bruno executed at Campo de' Fiori?
Giordano Bruno, a philosopher and former Dominican friar, was burned at the stake there on 17 February 1600 after the Roman Inquisition condemned him for heresy, including his claim that the universe was infinite and full of distant suns.
When was the Giordano Bruno monument built?
The monument was unveiled on 9 June 1889, commissioned by Roman Freemasons and sculpted by Ettore Ferrari. It was placed on the exact spot where Bruno burned and faces toward the Vatican.
Is there still a market at Campo de' Fiori?
Yes. The daily vegetable and fish market that used to fill Piazza Navona moved to Campo de' Fiori in 1869 and has run there every morning except Sunday ever since.
