Pope Sixtus V
Spent years in frustration as a cardinal, dreaming about Rome but powerless to make it better. When he became pope in 1585, he knew his time was short. The worried and ailing Sixtus was focused on bringing coherence to a pilgrimage route that included seven major churches in Rome. To create a system of movement among these churches, he strategically placed four obelisks. Over the succeeding eighty years, the development of Rome organized around these four points, emerging at the beginning of the Renaissance ready to claim its place in the pantheon of great urban centers… The urbanist just needs four obelisks to give the world its most beautiful city. But the obelisks literally changed the streaming of the city, making it flow towards beauty. (Fullilove, 2013, 130)