SS. ANNUNZIATA DELLE TURCHINE
Via Sforza 5 - Sconsacrata
1670/76 Carlo Rainaldi
(1611/91)
It was
built for the nuns of the Order of SS. Annunziata delle Turchine (Most Holy
Annunciation of the Virgin Mary of the Deep Blue Nuns) so called for the color
of their attire
It has been
a military tailoring and now it is home to the National Presidency of the
Association of Italian Paratroopers
MONASTERY
Maybe
by G.B. Contini (1641/1723)
S. TERESA D'AVILA
Corso
d'Italia 37
1901/02 Tullio Passarelli (1869/1941)
Next door
there is the General Curia of the Discalced Carmelites
It was
built in Romanesque Revival style
In the
FAÇADE
“Two marble
lions” by Armando Brasini (1879/1965)
In the
BRONZE PORTAL
Reliefs “Stories
of St. Teresa” 1983 by Fra 'Serafino Melchiorre
“Statue
of St. Teresa” by Giuseppe Trabacchi (1839/1909)
S. STEFANO ROTONDO
Via di S. Stefano Rotondo 7
About
470/480 for Pope Simplicius (468/483) on the area of the barracks of the
provincial auxiliary soldiers known as CASTRA PEREGRINA built in about 160 AD
It is the
oldest circular church in Rome
Innocent II
Papareschi (1130/1143) added the five-arched portico and the interior triple
arch
1453
restoration for Pope Nicholas V Parentucelli (1447/55) by Bernardo Rossellino (1409/64) who consolidated the
roof and removed the external ambulatory and three of the four arms of the
original plan
It has the
same dimensions of the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
It was the
seat of the Collegium Hungaricum, founded in 1579, joined in 1580 with
the Collegium Germanicum, which had been founded in 1552
So in 1580
the GERMANIC-HUNGARIAN COLLEGE was founded, to form priests who would
contribute to the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Even today the church is the
property of the College
It is the Hungarian National Church
Thirty-four
ancient columns taken from Roman buildings
“The latest
research has shown that the original building was built as a succession of open
and covered spaces, creating a play of light and shadow as well as tall and
lower structures which culminated in the central drum. Once the Renaissance
floor of the areas in the northeast and southwest was removed, the remains of
the ancient floor of the fifth century were found, consisting of sheets of
cipollino (onion-like) marble, 90 cm. wide, flanked by smaller sheets: this has
allowed us to reconstruct the original design of the floor probably made out of
squares intersected diagonally. (...) Within the building were also found
remains of opus sectile (inlaid marble) of fine marbles and, in the walls, rows
of holes for pins and hooks which used to hold the marble slabs on the walls,
confirming the drawings of the interior the church made by Baldassare Peruzzi
at the beginning of the sixteenth century” (Romena Brugnerotto -
www.nuovipanorami.it)
PERIMETER
WALLS
Thirty
painted panels with “Martyrology” 1582/83 by Niccolò
Circignani aka Pomarancio (about 1520/98), who painted twenty-four
panels, Antonio Tempesta (about 1555/1630) and
assistants
Some panels
were repainted in the nineteenth century
They were
useful to psychologically prepare young Jesuits who were about to go with a
false identity in Protestant countries to secretly regain Christians to the
Catholic Church
“This is the
richest and best moment of Circignani's career. To the generic influence of
Michelangelo, an easy and eclectic capacity of assimilation of the most important
trends of the late Roman Mannerism was gradually added: from Muziano to the
Zuccari's, even Barocci albeit only in part. One can detect the trend towards a
clearer simplification of the artificial and fragmented representation of the
Mannerist style and the search for a more unified and monumental compositional
vision” (Michele Cordaro - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
On the left
against a pillar “Episcopal Seat of
St. Gregory the Great” marble chair of the imperial period of ancient
Rome
MAIN
ALTAR
Dedicated,
among others, to the Hungarian saints of the Árpád royal family: St. Stephen
the first King of Hungary (about 1001/38), St. Emeric (XI century), crown
prince and son of St. Stephen, and King Ladislaus (1077/95)
CHAPEL
OF Sts. PRIMUS AND FELICIAN
The relics
of St. Felician were transferred here in about 647 at the behest of Theodore I
(642/649)
In the apse
mosaic “Christ on a jeweled
cross, not crucified, between Sts. Primus and Felician” of the seventh century
It strikes
a contrast, in not representing the crucifixion, with the cruelty of the
frescoes on the walls
CHAPEL
OF St. STEPHEN OF HUNGARY
Sepulcher
of the beginning of the sixteenth century
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
EXPLORATIONS
Mithraeum
of the second or third century with decorative faux marble inlay decorations.
It was part of the Castra Peregrina
