BASILICA OF St. AGNES OUTSIDE THE WALLS

BASILICA S. AGNESE FUORI LE MURA

Via Nomentana 349

Built at the time of Honorius I (625/638) near the site of the basilica built in the year 342 abandoned after the last renovation of Symmachus (498/514)

It was four times larger and the large impressive ruins are still conspicuously visible nearby

It was built by Constantina, the daughter of Constantine (306/337) over the catacomb that housed the body of St. Agnes

Among the popes who had it restored Julius II Della Rovere (1503/13) and Paul V Borghese (1605/21)

Entrance on Via Nomentana and RECTORY with porch built in 1856 by Andrea Busiri Vici (1818/1911)

ROOM OF PIUS IX

Fresco painted in 1858 by Domenico Toietti (active 1840/62) representing the event during which the floor sank beneath the feet of the pope Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) who was unharmed

This persuaded him even more to proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854: not that Mary has conceived Jesus as a virgin, as is commonly and erroneously believed, but that she was born without original sin

"Annunciation" 1454 and thirteenth century frescoes

MARBLE STAIRCASE

1590 with inscriptions  on the walls taken from the catacombs

The basilica was built at basement level to have the relics of S. Agnes at the same level of the floor. It used to stick out from the ground just from the clerestory up, until the excavation of the seventeenth century when Cardinal Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici, freed the façade and created the current front entrance

The CEILING replaced the original trussed ceiling in 1606 for Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, restored and painted in 1855

Ancient columns with Corinthian capitals and galleries known as MATRONEUM, unique in Rome with columns of the seventh century

OVE THE ARCH OF THE APSE

Fresco "Martyrdom of St. Agnes" by Pietro Gagliardi (1809/90)

ON THE SIDE WALL AND ON THE ENDONARTHEX (inner narthex)

"Women saints" 1856 by Domenico Toietti and Giuseppe Sereni (1823/after 1888)

2nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

"Bust of Jesus" in bronze by Nicolas Cordier (1567/1612) wrongly attributed to Michelangelo

Marble diptych with "Sts. Stephen and Lawrence" 1490 School of Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)

APSE

Mosaic with "St. Agnes in the center flanked by Popes Symmachus and Honorius I" made at the time of Honorius I (625/638) one of the finest examples of Byzantine art in Rome where the figures express a wise almost immaterial symbolic synthesis

CIBORIUM 1614

Beneath the MAIN ALTAR remains of Sts. Agnes and Emerenziana (Agnes' sister)

Behind the altar "Statue of St. Agnes" by Nicolas Cordier who completed a torso sculpture of ancient oriental alabaster with a shade of agate stone

To the left of the altar Roman "Marble candelabra"

Catacomba di S. Agnese
Catacomb of St. Agnes

Excavated in the third and fourth centuries BC. There are no paintings

Three levels for about 6 km (3.7 miles), divided into four regions:

Regio 1 - Pre-Constantinian, second half of the third century. St. Agnes was buried here. She died when she was only 12 years old in the area of the Stadium of Domitian (Piazza Navona), it is unknown whether decapitated or burned. The persecution during which she was killed is not known either: Decius (249/251), Valerian (257/260) or Diocletian (303/305)?

Regio 2 - fragmented and devastated by the "corpisantari", tomb raiders

Regio 3 - Behind the apse of the Honorian Basilica towards north, used since the late fourth century

Regio 4 - The closer one to the Mausoleum of St. Constance. Necropolis with pagan mausoleums and columbaria in tombs and burial chambers overlapping. There are both incineration and inhumation burials dating from the mid-second century AD. Some maybe belonged to men of praetorian rank

Mausoleo di S. Costanza
Mausoleum of St. Constance

Built 342 for Constance and Helena daughters (or grandchildren) of Constantine, as a structure attached to the basilica

First it was transformed into a baptistery and then in 1254, at the behest of Alexander IV (1254/61), it was transformed into a church dedicated to the never existed St. Costance

The oldest Christian mosaics in Rome made between 337 and 361:

In the vault of the ambulatory "Geometric and ornamental patterns, depicting scenes of harvest" with "Portraits of Constantine and her husband Hannibalian"

In the small apse to the right "Christ entrust St. Peter a scroll" and in the small apse to the left "Traditio Legis" late fourth century. These mosaics were restored in 1843

In the niche opposite the entrance "Copy of the sarcophagus of Constantine" (the original is in the Vatican Museums)

"The relationship of light quantity between the central part and the ambulatory is underlined by the repetition, along the radial direction, of the connecting element: the column. The couples of columns give a "slow down" effect and make you feel more the osmosis from one value to another; the strong entablature that connects them to form a strong structural node, free the arches from any apparent effort, gives their curve value of deep connection between the area of light and of shadow" (Giulio Carlo Argan)

In some niches one can read the graffiti of Bentvogels, an association of Flemish and Dutch artists in the seventeenth century. They had chosen the mausoleum as their home believing it was a Temple of Bacchus (misled by the subject of the mosaics) and they used to drink merringly inside

THREE FOUNTAINS ABBEY

ABBAZIA DELLE TRE FONTANE

Three Fountains Abbey

Via Acque Salvie 1

Monastery founded about 625 by order of Honorius I (625/638) and held by Greek monks. It reached maximum wealth in the eighth and ninth century

In the second half of the eleventh century it was given to the Benedictines

From 1140 it was rebuilt, given to the Cistercians and completed in 1221

In the seventeenth century the churches S. Maria Scala Coeli and S. Paolo were built but later the monastery was abandoned

From the 1867 there was a revival with the Trappist fathers

ARCH OF CHARLEMAGNE

Eighth or ninth century, gateway to the monastery with frescoes from the twelfth or thirteenth century now almost completely disappeared: there are just traces of evangelists and saints

Painted to commemorate the donation of a property in the Tuscan Maremma, made by Pope Leo III (795/816) and Charlemagne to the Abbey in the year 805, for the miraculous intercession of the relics of St. Anastasio: they were believed to have contributed to the conquest of Ansedonia

Ss. Vincenzo e Anastasio

Sts. Vincent & Anastasius

625 for Honorius I to preserve the relics of St. Anastasio and, from the eighth century, also of St. Vincent. They were later transferred to the church dedicated to them in Piazza di Trevi

Reconstructed and completed in 1221 for Honorius III Savelli (1216/27)

Restoration 1868

To the left of the church MONASTIC BUILDINGS that cannot be visited belonging to the Trappist monks. Cloister of the twelfth century, chapter house and refectory

Frescoes including a “Calendar of months”

S. Maria Scala Coeli

Our Lady Stairway to Heaven             

1581/84 Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602) for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and, after his death in 1584, for the Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini

According to tradition it was here that St. Zeno and his 10,203 companions were martyred in 298 after having built the Baths of Diocletian

The name derives from the vision that St. Bernard of Clairvaux had in 1138 while celebrating mass: a long stairway to heaven climbed by a sinner for whose soul the saint had prayed to Our Lady, who awaited him at the top of the steps, indicating that the request was granted

THREE ALTARS

Dedicated to St. Zeno, the Virgin and St. Bernardo

APSE

Mosaic “Saints and Doctors of the Church with Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605) and his nephew Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini” by Francesco Zucchi (about 1562/1622) 1591 from a design by Giovanni De Vecchi (about 1537/1615)

CRYPT

Altar dedicated to St. Paul and St. Zeno

At the sides of the altar little windows from which two rooms can be seen: to the left “Altar of the goddess Dia”, to the right room where, according to tradition, St. Paul was imprisoned

S. Paolo

St. Paul

Maybe fifth century. According to tradition on the site of the martyrdom of St. Paul on 68 AD. Rebuilt 1599/1601 by Giacomo Della Porta for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini

Statues on the pediment “St. Peter” and “St. Paul” by Nicolas Cordier (1567/1612)

On the floor mosaic with “Personification of the four seasons” from the mithraeum of the so-called Imperial Palace in Ostia donated by Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78)

APSE

Three niches with columns of black marble of Chios and fountains by Giacomo Della Porta where the springs of Acque Salvie (one hot, one warm and one cold) gushed. They have been closed in 1950 due to pollution

Between the first and second kiosk “Column of the beheading” to which St. Paul would have been bound for his martyrdom

RIGHT CHAPEL

“Decapitation of St. Paul” by Bartolomeo Passerotti (1529/92)

LEFT CHAPEL

Copy of the “Crucifixion of St. Peter” of the years 1604/05 by Guido Reni. The original, now in the Vatican Paintings Gallery, was painted for this church