St. URBAN AT THE CAFFARELLA

S. URBANO ALLA CAFFARELLA
Via della Caffarella/angolo Vicolo di S. Urbano

 Church of the tenth century adapted in the TEMPLE OF CERES AND FAUSTINA part of the Pago Triopio of Herodes Atticus of the second century AD

Prostyle tetrastyle with columns of Pentelic marble from the quarries near Athens which were owned by the Herodes Atticus himself

Herodes Atticus was a wealthy Athenian born in about 100 AD chosen by Antoninus Pius as a tutor of their adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus and charged with the killing of his wife Annia Regilla who had brought him as a dowry the property on the Appian Way
After the acquittal he showed off glaring manifestations of mourning, including the consecration to the infernal gods of his possessions on the Appian Way which, since then, took the name of Triopio derived from Triopas, the Thessalian hero who had founded the sanctuary of Demeter at Cnidus

It was probably an earthquake (in an undefined period) to cause damage to the vestibule, which led in 1634 to the buffering of the intercolumni. On the same occasion the LITTLE BELL TOWER was erected

Original paintings replaced with frescoes “New Testament Stories, S. Urban and S. Cecilia” 1011

CENTRAL OCTAGONAL AREA OF THE CEILING
Ancient painting only partially preserved with “Two figures, maybe Herodes Atticus and his wife Annia Regilla”
The “stucco frieze” is also ancient and original as well as the structure of the vault

CRYPT
“Madonna with Child between Sts. Urbano and John” tenth century

At the foot of the hill on which the temple stands, in the direction of the Almone stream is the NYMPHEUM OF EGERIA, a rectangular room with vault in opus mixtum preceded by a projecting porch