S. BENEDETTO IN PISCINULA
It is
mentioned in the sources for the first time at the end of the tenth century
It was
built incorporating the cell of St. Benedict (about 480/547), where the saint
lived in the years 495/500
The cell
according to tradition was part of the DOMUS ANICIORUM, or the home of his
family, the Anici
The ancient
document Liber Censuum of 1198 describes the church as “De Piscina” (of
the pool) probably because of the proximity of some ancient thermal pools
BELL TOWER
and ORATORIO to the left of the vestibule were built between the twelfth and
the thirteenth century
The bell
tower is the smallest in Rome and it includes the oldest bell in a tower in the
world, dating from 1069, and the smallest one as well, with only 45 cm (17.7
inches) in diameter
This little
bell has even found place in the Guinness Book of World Records for being, in
fact, the oldest bell tower known, although some scholars date it to the
fourteenth century
In the
years 1676 and 1718 there were changes to the church
1844
renovations and FAÇADE by Pietro Camporese the Younger
(1792/1873)
VESTIBULE maybe
the original nucleus of the place of worship:
On the
left CHAPEL OF OUR
LADY
On the
right CELL OF St.
BENEDICT
Remains of
the Cosmatesque FLOOR dating back to the twelfth or thirteenth century enhanced
after the 2007 restoration
COUNTER
FAÇADE AND RIGHT WALL
Fragments
of frescoes “Last Judgment, Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, and maybe Expulsion
from Paradise” by an unknown artists of the beginning
of the twelfth century
“To judge
these frescoes is difficult because of the poor state they are in, but the
decorations seem to be part of the Roman and Lazio region painting style of the
late eleventh and early twelfth century - like in S. Clemente or Ceri - an
observation not denied by what one can imagine from the treatment of
physiognomies. Guiglia also included these frescoes in the iconographic period
that has its roots in the group of the Atlantic Bibles - so-called
Umbrian-Roman - for which a close comparison can still be the cycle in Ceri”
(Serena Romano)
TO THE
RIGHT OF THE APSE
Altarpiece “St.
Anne, Madonna and Child with the patron”
MAIN ALTAR
“St.
Benedict” all works of the fifteenth century
Fragment
of a fresco in the apse with festoons
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