[1] The road's design was commissioned in 1508 to Donato Bramante by Pope Julius II (r. 1503–1513), of the powerful della Rovere family, and was one of the first important urban planning projects in papal Rome during the Renaissance.

[2] The project had three aims: the creation of a major roadway inserted in a new system of streets superimposed on the maze of alleys of medieval Rome; the construction of a large avenue surrounded by sumptuous buildings to testify to the renewed grandeur of the Catholic Church; and finally, the foundation of a new administrative and banking centre near the Vatican, the seat of the popes, and far from the traditional city centre on the Capitoline Hill, dominated by the Roman baronial families opposed to the pontiffs.

In the Baroque period the building activity, directed by the most important architects of the time such as Francesco Borromini, Carlo Maderno and Giacomo della Porta, continued unabated, while the street, favorite location of the Roman nobles, became the theatre of tournaments, parties and carnival parades.

In Rome, since the early Middle Ages, while the political and representative heart of the city seemed to have remained on the Capitoline Hill, the area of the ancient Campus Martius developed into one of the most densely populated districts (abitato).

[10] Starting with Nicholas, the policy of the popes was to leave the control of the Capitoline Hill area to the Roman nobility, concentrating urban development on the Tiber bend and the Vatican, made important by the pilgrimage to Saint Peter and the jubilees.

[16] The successors of Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII (r. 1484–1492); Alexander VI (r. 1492–1503); and Pius III (r. 1503), continued the Sistine urban planning policy, often completing the works begun by Pope della Rovere.

[20][19] In addition to reconstructing St. Peter's Basilica, Julius II implemented multiple projects in the framework of Rome's urban renewal (Renovatio Romae) in the Ponte, Parione, Sant'Eustachio and Colonna rioni, a task which was started forty years before by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV.

Moreover, the street, overlooking the river, was going to represent the place of the cultured and refined leisure time of the Roman upper class, who built there some of the most luxurious suburban residences in the city.

[1][28] This project had a secondary, celebrative goal to promote the Pontiff as the unifier of Italy and the renewer of Rome; in 1506, after the end of the plague, Julius overthrew the powerful Baglioni and Bentivoglio families, conquering their strongholds of Perugia and Bologna [25][29] as testified in an inscription along the Via dei Banchi Nuovi.

[24] Giorgio Vasari wrote:[34] Si risolvé il Papa di mettere in strada Giulia, da Bramante indrizzata, tutti gli uffici e le ragioni di Roma in un luogo, per la commoditá ch'a i negoziatori averia recato nelle faccende, essendo continuamente fino allora state molto scomode.The pope decided to consolidate all the offices and financial centres of Rome in one place in the Via Giulia designed by Bramante.

[35] Due to that, the feuding Orsini and Colonna families and the other Barons reached an agreement (known as the Pax Romana), in order to ask at the upcoming conclave the restoration of the commune authority and the abolition of various taxes.

[35] The pope's prompt recovery made the possibility of conclave fade away; Julius, under pressure from abroad, came to terms with the nobles, propagandizing the anti-papal pact as an agreement in his favour and revoking several decisions taken against the comune.

[37] After the death of Julius II in 1513, the demographic situation in Rome had changed: because of the wars in Italy, a large number of Lombards had emigrated to the city, settling in the northern area of the Campo Marzio, where their national church already existed.

[40][39] The church was to become the symbol of Florentine economic and financial dominance in Rome, being at the centre of the area occupied by the banks, the fondachi and the residences of the Tuscan bourgeoisie and nobility living in the pope's capital.

The area south of the church of San Biagio–the central part of the Via Giulia around the Monte dei Planca Incoronati, cut in half by the new road with an act of force of the pope against one of the most powerful families of the city nobility–[45] became a slum filled with inns, brothels, and infamous locations like Piazza Padella, a venue known for duels and stabbings up to the end of the 19th century and demolished in the 1930s.

[46] This area, lying between Via del Gonfalone, Via delle Carceri, Via di Monserrato and the Tiber, was a major district of ill-repute since the Middle Ages; a manuscript from 1556 reports about the quarter around the eventually demolished church of San Niccolò degli Incoronati hosted "... 150 houses of very simple people, whores and dubious persons ...".

[49] The Farnese decided to turn their back against the street, orienting the main façade of their gigantic palace towards Campo de' Fiori and the centre of the city, and using the road only as a service route.

It became less of a major commercial street and more a busy promenade and a place for celebrations, processions (such as that of the ammantate, poor girls which were dowried by the goldsmiths of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici) and races.

[60][66] At the end of the 17th century, the road took on a triple face, which it would maintain for another 150 years: an area of building speculation in the north, a detention centre in the middle, and an elegant location in the south,[67] theater of feasts and games.

[70] From an architectural point of view in the 18th century there were only minor interventions in the street: the development of the city was now defined in the Tridente and Quirinale areas, both far away from the Tiber bend, and Via Giulia remained cut off.

[73] In the nineteenth century, in accordance with the process of degradation of the building heritage that affected the whole city, Via Giulia underwent a myriad of interventions of superfetation, superelevation, and occupation of the free spaces.

[76] After Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, the Tiber (known for flooding, particularly in Campus Martius plain) had its banks worked on in 1873 by constructing Lungoteveres, which since 1888 were erected along the road and required the church of Sant'Anna dei Bresciani to be torn down.

[80] Because of that, significant building demolitions (including that of the palazzi Ruggia and Planca Incoronati and of Piazza Padella)[81] took place in the central section of Via Giulia between Via della Barchetta and Vicolo delle Prigioni.

[91] The building still stands along Via Giulia, but its original internal disposition has been changed through several interventions, while its giardino segreto ("secret garden") with its loggia with three arches open on the river [93] has been destroyed.

[95] The arch was part of a project conceived by Pope Paul III and never realised, which foresaw the connection of Palazzo Farnese with the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere by means of a private bridge over the river.

[116] The Palacio de Monserrat by Antonio Sarti and Pietro Camporese was built in 1862 by the will of Queen of Spain Isabella II and today is the Spanish High Centre for Ecclesiastical Studies.

[124] In 1572 Cardinal Innico d'Avalos d'Aragona founded in the dilapidated building the Confraternita dello Spirito Santo dei Napoletani ("Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Neapolitans"), who bought it from the nuns in 1574.

[128] Construction of the small church opposite the Carceri Nuove was sponsored by Rutilio Brandi, a glove-maker from Florence, and given to the Compagnia delle santissime piaghe after 1617, the year in which the confraternity got the permission to organize itself.

Giorgio Vasari wrote:[34] Onde Bramante diede principio al palazzo ch'a San Biagio su 'l Tevere si vede, nel quale è ancora un tempio corinzio non finito, cosa molto rara, et il resto del principio di opera rustica bellissimo che è stato gran danno che una sì onorata et utile e magnifica opra non si sia finita, ché da quelli della professione è tenuto il più bello ordine che si sia visto mai in quel genere.Bramante therefore began the construction of the palace, which can be seen near San Biagio on the Tiber.

[149] Notable features inside include the Salone dei Mappamondi ("Hall of World Maps"), designed by Francesco Salviati,[147] and the dining room with two frescoes painted by Pietro da Cortona.