Mentioned
in the sources from 1123 as S. Silvestro ad Portam Septimianam or as S.
Silvestro della Malva
The
official name of the church is still Ss. DOROTEA E
SILVESTRO IN TRASTEVERE (Sts. Dorothy and Sylvester in Trastevere)
S. Dorothy
was a martyr born in Cappadocia and killed at the time of Diocletian (284/305)
The church
was restored in 1475
Rebuilt in
the years 1751/56 by G.B. Nolli (1701/56),
master of G.B. Piranesi and probably the greatest cartographer of the
eighteenth century, author of the famous map of Rome in 1748
He died
soon after completing the church which was given the last touches by Giovanni Carlo Vipera
“Not always
successful, and yet to be fully recognized, the architectural activity of Nolli
shows a search in line with the most advanced Roman trends of his time,
including Fuga and Vanvitelli, architects who exercised a profound influence on
his language. (...) More challenging the structures of Casa Giorgi on Piazza
del Pantheon and St. Dorothy, that processes a longitudinal plant but with a
very pronounced transect to suggest a substantial centrality, and a domed
structure made up of vaults between large ribs set on the four pillars of the
cross vault” (Mario Bevilacqua - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
Frescoes “Stories
of St. Dorothy and Franciscan saints” 1931 by the Neapolitan Gaetano Bocchetti (1888/1990)
In the
chapels there are paintings all dating back to the second half of the
eighteenth cantury
1st
CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
“Apparition of St. Cajetan to St.
Joseph Calasanz” about 1755 by Gioacchino Martorana
(1735/79) from Palermo
2nd
CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
“St. Anthony of Padua” by Lorenzo
Gramiccia (1702/95)
3rd CHAPEL
ON THE RIGHT
“Immaculate
Conception” by the Viennese George Caspar von Prenner
(1720/66)
“Sts.
Sylvester and Dorothy venerate the Virgin Mary” by the seventeenth-century
painter Michele Bucci
Urn with
body of S. Dorothy
and tomb of G.B. Nolli with a plaque on the wall to the right
3rd
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
“Crucifixion
with Sts. Rosalie, Margaret of Cortona, Bonaventure and Nicholas” by Michele Meucci
2nd
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
“Musical Ecstasy of St. Francis” by Liborio
Mormorelli (?/1794)
1st
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
“St. Joseph of Cupertino” by the Florentine Vincenzo Meucci (1694/1766)
In two
rooms adjoining the church the Spanish St. Joseph Calasanz founded in 1597 the
first free school in Europe
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