TEMPLE OF ISIS

TEMPIO DI ISIDE
Via di S. Stefano del Cacco 26

Maybe built at the behest of the members of the second triumvirate in the year 43 BC

It was known as Iseum Campensis and it was the most important sanctuary of the Egyptian religion in Rome

The site of the temple corresponds to the present church of S. Stefano del Cacco (St. Stephen of Cacco)
It was hardly tolerated by Augustus and Tiberius, and it was rebuilt by Caligula, Domitian and Alexander Severus
Grand entrance from the north in the current Via del Seminario and two side entrances closer to the temple. The east side entrance was the so-called ARCO DI CAMIGLIANO (Arch of Camigliano) the left pilaster of which is still visible

“The historian Dio Cassius says that in 53 BC the Senate ordered the demolition of all the private temples, within the walls, not only dedicated to Isis, but also to Serapis, other male deity imported from Egyptian, corresponding to the Hellenized form of the god Osiris, brother and husband of Isis. The construction of the Iseum Campensis took place significantly in 43 BC, ten years after the senatorial ban, if another testimony of Dio Cassius is properly interpreted, and the patrons are the protagonists of the second triumvirate, who most likely continued the building program begun by Julius Caesar in the Campus Martius. After a few years after its construction, the Temple of Isis was, on and off, at the center of repressions and temporary suspensions, from Agrippa in 21 BC, to the more incisive one of Tiberius, who even had the priests executed. After the reintroduction of the cult by Caligula, and the complete reconstruction of Domitian after the fire of 80 AD, the Iseum Campensis and the worship of the goddess Isis continued until the end of the imperial period” (Paolo Vigliarolo - ArcheoCommons)

The structure was decorated with five small obelisks of about 6 m (20 feet) in height:

1) Piazza della Rotonda from Heliopolis by Ramses II (1297/1213 BC) about 1250 BC

2) War Memorial of Dogali from Heliopolis by Ramses II about 1250 BC

3) Piazza della Minerva by Apries about 500 BC

4) Florence, Boboli Gardens from Heliopolis by Ramses II about 1250 BC

5) Urbino, Palazzo Ducale by Apries by 500 BC

There was also a higher one, perhaps the Agonal Obelisk later moved to the Circus of Maxentius and later on again to Piazza Navona, with the name of Domitian in hieroglyphics
Filippo Coarelli and Jean-Claude Grenier deem it however coming originally from the TEMPLUM GENTIS FLAVIAE that was erected in Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando where now the Hall Octagonal or Hall of Minerva is, the former Planetarium

Maybe it was another obelisk whose pieces of pink granite were used for the thresholds of the Collegio Romano, Palazzo Giustiniani and S. Andrea della Valle
Maybe it corresponds to the square in the center of Via Pie' di Marmo on the Forma Urbis marble map

MANY STATUES were found in the area of the temple, including:
The two statues of men representing rivers lying down: the “Nile” in the Vatican Museums and the “Tiber” in the Louvre
Those that make up the Egyptian Collection of the Capitoline Museums found here in 1883
The “Pie' di Marmo” placed in the street with the same name, Via del Pie’ di Marmo
The “Madama Lucretia” in Piazza Venezia
The “Dog-headed God Thoth” now the Gregorian Egyptian Museum in the Vatican and mistakenly considered a macaque monkey

St. JOHN OF THE PINE CONE

S. GIOVANNI DELLA PIGNA

Piazza della Pigna/Vicolo della Minerva 51

Known since the year 955

It was given in 1585 to the Confraternita della Pietà ai Carcerati (Brotherhood of Mercy for Prisoners) who had it rebuilt in the late seventeenth century by Angelo Torrone

The Brotherhood was established in 1575 at the behest of the French Jesuit Giovanni Tallier. He was confessor in Roman prisons and organized a group of volunteers who took care of prisoners

In 1579 Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85) promoted it to Archconfraternity

The church was renovated in the years 1700, 1837 maybe by Virginio Vespignani and 1983

It is in the district that took its name from the ancient bronze pine cone, which was found here. It was part of the decoration of the TEMPLE OF ISIS who was in this area and it was probably a fountain

It was placed in the atrium of the Basilica of St. Peter and it is now in the Courtyard of the Pine Cone in the Vatican Museums

The district was formerly called “Porcari District” from the noble family that had homes here in the Middle Ages: Stefano Porcari conspired against Nicholas V Parentucelli (1447/55) to make Rome a republic but he was hanged

Interior decoration and “Evangelists” in the spandrels 1860

Nineteenth-century Murano glass chandelier

Near the door “Tombs of Nicola, Giuliano and Giovanni Porcari” with mosaics of the fourteenth century

1^st ALTAR ON THE RIGHT

“Martyrdom of S. Eleuterio” 1738 by Giacomo Zoboli (1681/1767)

2^nd ALTAR ON THE RIGHT

“Conversion of S. Genesio” by an anonymous eighteenth-century Roman artist

MAIN ALTAR

Altarpiece “St. John the Baptist” about 1628 last work of Baldassarre Croce (about 1553/1628)

On the cyma “Pietà” about 1690 by Luigi Garzi (1638/1721)

2^nd ALTAR ON THE LEFT

“Vision of St. Teresa of Avila” end of 1600s maybe by Antonio Gherardi (1638/1702)

1^st ALTAR ON THE LEFT

“Madonna of S. Maria Maggiore” interesting work painted in archaic style by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

It seems as if the ancient iconic image protector of Rome kept in the Basilica of St. Maria Maggiore would take full form in a new Baroque dimension and walk towards the viewer between adoring angels

Further on in the aisle “Funerary memory of Gaspare Elia” 1624, the benefactor of the Confraternity of Mercy for Prisoners which bequeathed his fortune