Abstract
Through a survey of important buildings and urbanistic forces in Rome, this chapter considers to what extent and in what ways a city is a necessary tool for gaining, retaining, and using political power. In the wake of demographic changes in Europe and urban growth in the Po River valley in the late Middle Ages, Rome emerged as a new center of political power with the revival of the papacy after Avignon. The city was in poor material condition following the fourteenth century, and there was a need to restore urban functionality, but also to shape it into a site consistent visually and symbolically with its role being a major European capital. Early modern popes dedicated themselves to rehabilitating Rome, and the success and failures of papal performative architecture and urbanism demonstrate the links between political power and urbanism.