The square is on the site of the ancient circus of Flora, where floral games took place in May to celebrate springtime.

Originally, there was a large entrance gateway to the palace designed by the Baroque painter and architect Pietro da Cortona on the south east corner of the piazza but this was demolished to make way for the construction of a new road in the 19th century.

Another fountain, the Fontana delle Api (1644), also by Bernini is in the nearby Via Vittorio Veneto but it has been reconstructed somewhat arbitrarily following its removal from its previous position on the corner of a palace where the Piazza Barberini meets the Via Sistina.

It was led by the oldest peasant to Piazza della Rotonda, where amid folk dancing, fresh strawberries were distributed to those present.

[3] In 1935 the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni (INA) bought the complex bounded by Piazza Barberini, Via Vittorio Veneto, Via dei Cappuccini (formerly Via Ferrea) and Via della Purificazione; but then had to fend off a purchase by the Giornale d’Italia, backed by the minister for the Press and Propaganda.