Monday, November 26, 2018

St. CAESAR OF THE APPIAN WAY

S. CESAREO DE APPIA
Via di Porta S. Sebastiano
Built in the eight century AD over an ancient building of the second century AD, maybe part of the BATHS OF COMMODUS
Rebuilt at the end of the sixteenth century maybe by Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602)
Karol Wojtyla was the titular cardinal of this church for 11 years until 1978, when he was elected pope
Also known as S. Cesareo in Turrim or, erroneously, from the sixteenth century, as S. Cesareo in Palatio
It was confused with the homonymous church no longer existing identified in 1907 by Alfonso Bartoli in a cubiculum (bedroom) of the Domus Augustana on Palatine Hill, in which a small apse had been obtained in the back wall. At the time of the excavations some painted figures were still fairly well identifiable in the cubiculum

PRESBYTERY
Enclosure of the presbytery, pulpit, altar frontal and chair reassembled at the end of the sixteenth century using also “Cosmatesque elements” from St. John Lateran

Canopy of the end of the sixteenth century

Above the chair
Fresco of the fifteenth century “Madonna and Child”

Mosaics with “Eternal Father in glory” in the apse and “Annunciation” on the outside of the triumphal arch 1603 from cartoons by Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavalier d'Arpino (1568/1640) who maybe also painted the panels in the attic with “Stories of Sts. Ippolitus and Cesareus”

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS
Mosaic floor in black and white with “Marine scenes” of the second century AD that covers the entire area of the church
A little further along the Appian Way is the CASINA DEL CARDINAL BESSARIONE (Small Villa of Cardinal Bessarion) of the mid-fifteenth century with inside part of the original frescoes

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