St. ANNE OF THE GROOMS

S. ANNA DEI PALAFRENIERI

Via S. Anna - Città del Vaticano

Begun in 1572 by Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/73) for the Confraternity of the Palafrenieri (Grooms)

Finished in 1583 after his death by his son Giacinto Barozzi (about 1535-40/after 1584)

It was the first church in Rome to have an elliptical plan

It was the church of the palafrenieri (grooms) or the papal sediari (carriers of the papal chair), people that supported the gestatorial chair of the pope and accompanied the pope's carriage

In 1929, following the Conciliation between the Italian state and the church, S. Anna became the parish church of the Vatican and Pius XI Ratti (1922/39) assigned it to the Swiss Guards, designating for the palafrenieri the church of S. Caterina della Rota

FAÇADE

1700/31 Alessandro Specchi (1668/1729), who also added the portal, the balustrade and the bell towers

DOME

1763 by Giovanni Domenico Navone (active since 1706/d. 1770)

Above the doors stucco panels 1746 by G.B. De Rossi

NEAR THE ENTRANCE

“Plaque in memory of the Marquis Del Grillo Onofrio (1714/87)”

He was an eccentric character famous for his practical jokes, a member of the palafrenieri and immortalized in the great 1981 film Il Marchese del Grillo directed by Mario Monicelli with the comedian Alberto Sordi. His tomb is in the church of S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini

ON THE WALLS

Four frescoes “Scenes from the life of St. Anna” by Ignazio Stern (1679/1748)

MAIN ALTAR

“S. Anna and the Virgin Mary girl” 1927 copy by Arturo Viligiardi (1869/1936) from an original by Alessandro Franchi

Outside to the left of the church there is the unknown but extraordinary FOUNTAIN OF THE BEES by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667) who had also prepared a project for the façade of the church

To the right of the church S. ANNA's GATE 1931 by Giuseppe Momo (1875/1940)

It is the church of the SWISS GUARDS in Vatican territory

The Swiss Guards are currently 110 and are at the service of the pope since 1506

During the sack of Rome in 1527 they saved the life of Clement VII Medici (1523/34): 147 died and only 42 survived, escaping with the pope in Castel Sant'Angelo

To be admitted to the corps one must be male, have Swiss citizenship, be of Catholic faith, have served in the Swiss army obtaining a certificate of good conduct, be between 18 and 30 years of age, have minimum height of 174 cm (5.7 feet), being unmarried (marriage is only permitted for corporals and higher ranks), have a certificate of professional capacity or high school diploma and be ready for a minimum service of 25 months

PALACE OF THE HOLY OFFICES

PALAZZO DEL S. UFFIZIO

Piazza del S. Uffizio

1514 as PALAZZO PUCCI

The Pucci family from Florence, after the death of the three Pucci cardinals who lived here, left it as a legacy to the Holy See, which readapted it in 1566 for S. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) as a courtroom and jail, the so called S. Uffizio

The FAÇADE TOWARDS St. PETER’S BASILICA was modified in 1869 for Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/1878)

The FAÇADE TOWARDS PIAZZA S. UFFIZIO was modified in 1925

It is the headquarters of the CONGREGAZIONE PER LA DOTTRINA DELLA FEDE (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) instituted by Paul III Farnese (1534/49) in 1542 as the Sacra Congregazione dell'Inquisizione Romana e Universale (Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition) to fight Protestantism

The name of the institution had been changed by S. Pius X Sarto (1903/14) into Congregazione del S. Uffizio (Congregation of the Holy Office) in 1908 and renewed with the current name by Paul VI Montini (1963/78) in 1965

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head (prefect) of this institution for twenty-four years, from 1981 to 2005, before he became pope under the name of Benedict XVI (2005)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - PIUS CLEMENTINUS MUSEUM - Greek Cross Room

Sala a Croce Greca

 

Completed in about 1780 by Michelangelo Simonetti (1724/87)

It was called Greek Cross Room for the Greek Cross plan

It was the entrance of the Museo Pio Clementino at the time of Pius VI Braschi (1775/99): when Michelangelo Simonetti died in 1787, Pius VI gave the job of finishing the project to Giuseppe Camporese (1763/1822), who reversed the museum route with a new access from the Greek Cross Room. That's why over the portal to the Round Room there is the sign Museum Pium

On either side of the portal “Two Roman telamons” imitation of Egyptian ones, maybe from the Canopus in Hadrian's Villa, restored by Gaspare Sibilla (about 1723/82)

Above the portal “Bas-relief with gladiators and wild beasts” highly integrated, of the second half of the first century AD

In the floor “Color mosaic” of a shield with a bust of Minerva and phases of the moon, of the third century AD, found in 1741 at Tusculum (Frascati). It was heavily restored

“Two sphinxes of pink granite” about first century AD

On the right “Sarcophagus of Constantina” of the fourth century AD in porphyry, from the Mausoleum of S. Constanza. She was the daughter of Constantine (306/337)

On the left “Sarcophagus of St. Helena” mother of Constantine in porphyry from Torpignattara, maybe prepared for the “companion” (they never married) Costantius Chlorus (305/306) or more probably for his son Constantine

“The Eastern workers employed sculpted a very high relief, in which there is very lively naturalistic analysis of the bodies of Roman soldiers and of the fallen and captive barbarians. The figures, however, are located in an area completely devoid of landscaping elements and in an environment that refuses a uniform spatial nature, so that the composition is reduced to two simple overlapping rows” (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

The Romans called porphyry (Lapis Porphyrites) a type of red marble that came into their availability after the conquest of Egypt by Augustus in 31 BC

It came from quarries owned by the Emperor on Mons Porphyrites o Mons Igneus, a mountainous area known today as Gebel Dokhan west of Hurghada, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt

It is an extremely hard kind of marble and difficult to carve, formerly used by Egyptian pharaohs and much appreciated for its red color typically associated with the imperial dignity

Porphyry was therefore used in works for the emperor and his family

From the fifth century AD its red color was assimilated to the cult of the body of Christ reserving, however, its use for the honor of the emperors themselves, according to a tradition that remained in the Byzantine Empire and was later adopted by other European kingdoms

Behind the sarcophagus inscriptions of “Carmen Fratrum Arvalium” one of the most valuable fragments of poetry, perhaps dating from the seventh or sixth century BC, with an archaic language that dates back to the origins of the Roman religion

The inscriptions are dated to May 29, 218 and were found in 1778 in the Vatican

This is the traditional chant of the Arvales (Fratres Arvales), an ancient Roman college of priests made up of twelve members chosen among the senators, repeating this sort of litany in honor of the goddess Dia, whose ancient worship was restored by Augustus

The temple of the goddess Dia was in the area above the Catacomb of Generosa on the Via Portuense. It is noteworthy that the tradition was still followed in the early third century AD

In the niches statues of “Augustus” so-called Verospi, maybe posthumous with Augustus dressed in the Greek fashion and “Gaius Caesar” the grandson of Augustus, with his head covered: it was found in the so-called Basilica of Otricoli

In a niche behind Constantina's sarcophagus there is a statue of “Lucius Verus young” (161/169) who here has a vague resemblance to former U.S. President Bill Clinton while smoking a huge cigar

VATICAN MUSEUMS - INTRODUCTION

MUSEI VATICANI

Viale Vaticano

The surface of Vatican City, the smallest independent state in the world, is only 0.44 km (109 acres), 7.8 times smaller than Central Park in New York

The maximum altitude above sea level of Vatican City is 77 meters (253 feet)

"At the time of the kings of Rome, and yet in the Republican period, there was the Ager Vaticanus: a territory that stretched for about eight miles along the right bank of the Tiber, starting north from the Valchetta Brook (the ancient Cremera) to south where the Janiculum Hill is, or slightly beyond it" (Paolo Liverani)

The inhabitants of Vatican City in 2011 were 799 of which 572 citizens: 110 Swiss Guards, 43 lay and the rest all members of the clergy

The about 3,000 lay workers in the Vatican live in Italy and they are all Italian citizens

Vatican City includes the so-called Apostolic Palaces also known as Papal Palaces or Vatican Palaces, official residence of the Pope in Vatican City

However popes had lived for about 1,000 years in the Lateran Palace in Rome and next to the Basilica of St. Peter there was just a temporary dwelling, used by popes to rest during the periods of the ceremonies in the Basilica

"The history of the basilica was determined by the choice of Pope St. Symmachus (498/514), who, having to fight against an anti-pope, decided to move his home to the Vatican. Near the atrium of the basilica he had living spaces (episcopia) built for himself and for the clergy, beginning a papal residence. Probably he was also concerned with the completion of the atrium and the stairway facing the campus, near which he arranged accommodation for pilgrims (habitacula pauperum), as well as a fountain. The pontiff was also perhaps responsible for the transformation of the road that led from St. Peter's Basilica to the Mausoleum of Hadrian with a covered colonnade (porticus Sancti Petri), of uncertain date" (Christof Thoenes)

The first pope who decided to live permanently in the Vatican was Niccolò III Orsini (1277/80) who had a new residence built there, close to the area of the city under the influence of his family, the powerful Orsini

After the exile in Avignon in the fourteenth century, the popes returned to Rome in 1420 with Martin V Colonna (1417/31) and began to settle in the Vatican, even though Martin V himself, from 1424 to his death in 1431, lived in the fortified Palazzo Colonna where now Piazza Ss. Apostoli is, the palace of his family, rival of the Orsini and equally powerful

Eugene IV Coldumer (1431/47) was a friend of the Orsini and lived in their properties using S. Lorenzo in Damaso for his court, except of course for the nine years 1434/43 during which he was forced into exile in Florence and Bologna due to the prevalence in Rome of the Colonna party

It was only with Nicholas V Parentucelli (1447/55) that the Vatican was chosen as the permanent home of the popes for good. He was a humanist pope and wanted in the Vatican a beautiful Renaissance court. He renewed the Basilica of St. Peter and built new rooms in the Vatican Palace

Many popes, from the end of the sixteenth century onwards, preferred to live in the Quirinal Palace which was the papal seat from 1592 with Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605) until 1870 when it became the residence of the Savoy kings (278 years!)

The Apostolic Palaces include the actual Apostolic Palace, current residence of the pope, the government offices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Library in addition to more than 1,000 rooms including the Sistine Chapel, the Sala Regia (Royal Hall) and the rooms painted by Raphael

The approximate and unofficial total number of rooms in the Apostolic Palaces is about 12,000

In 1929 with the birth of Vatican City and the signing of the Lateran Treaty the Vatican's ownership of the works of art in its territory was recognized by the Italian State, provided only that it would guarantee access to scholars and visitors, as stated in the Article 18 of the Concordat between the Holy See and Italy

The Vatican Museums include a huge amount of artwork that lined up would form a line about 8 km (5 miles) long

In 2011 the Vatican Museums were visited by 5,078,004 people, even more impressive if one considers that the second most visited museum in Italy (technically the first, as the Vatican Museums are not in Italian territory), the Uffizi in Florence, had about 1,500,000 visitors

"In a space probably just a little higher on the hill than the present basilica, there was a sanctuary dedicated to Magna Mater Idaea, the Great Mother of Mount Ida, also known under the name of Cybele. The cult is attested at least since the beginning of the second century AD. (...) The structures of the sanctuary were not found, but traces remain in the written sources and in a large number of inscriptions on altars reminiscent of a peculiar rite celebrated here, the taurobolio, the sacrifice of an ox to the goddess. (...) Among the followers of Cybele the sanctuary was so famous that the term 'Vatican' was used to indicate in general a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess, as well as the name 'Capitolio' would have indicated a temple dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno and Minerva, named after the Capitoline Hill, which housed the most famous temple in Rome dedicated to these deities" (Paolo Liverani)

ENTRANCE ATRIUM TO THE VATICAN MUSEUMS

1996/2000 by the Studio Passarelli for the Jubilee of the year 2000

"Porta Nuova (new door) of the Vatican Museums" 2000 Cecco Bonanotte (1942) in bronze with the theme of Creation, consisting of 208 square panels

The new "White spiral ramp" is inspired by that of the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who, in turn, was inspired by the exit ramp of the Vatican Museums by Giuseppe Momo in 1932, a few meters away from the new ramp, in a very interesting dynamic inspirational rebound

At the center of the atrium controversial sculpture "Crossing the Threshold" by Giuliano Vangi

ON THE WALLS extraordinary ancient Roman mosaics including "Mosaic of ships and port maybe on the Tiber" first century BC from a villa on the Via Ardeatina formerly used as the floor of one of the Raphael Rooms

Mosaic "Justice and Peace" 1940 by Massimo Campigli (1895/1971)

At the foot of the white ramp on the right copy of the statue of "August from Prima Porta" painted for the exhibition "Colors of White" held in the Vatican Museums in 2005

"In ancient Rome, the most important public monuments and statues were polychrome, colored marbles were used coming from different places, white marbles were used as part of a complex interplay of colors, and stucco sculptures were painted with fresh vitality. However it has become commonplace to identify the "classical world" with the transparency of white marble, and this simply because the sculptures for the most part have lost any trace of the colorful surface of which were covered, also because of the painting and decoration of buildings and rooms relatively little is preserved. Everything in the ancient world was colored" (Eugenio La Rocca)

COURTYARD OF THE BREASTPLATES

"Base of the Column of Antoninus Pius" (138/161) 161 with an apotheosis of Antoninus Pius and Faustina Major with a winged genius and personifications of Rome and of the Campus Martius

On the two shorter sides there are two decursii, parades of knights who used to circle around the ustrinum (funeral pyre) three times during the funeral

It was built by Antoninus Pius' sons, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in the Montecitorio area. It was found in 1703 and restored in about 1840 by Giuseppe Fabris

The Column of Antoninus Pius in red granite was destroyed in 1705 by Francesco Fontana during transport from the monks' orchard in which it had been found to Piazza Montecitorio. Reduced in slab it was used in 1792 to restore the Obelisk of Psammetichus II now in front of Palazzo di Montecitorio

"Small compositional details bring out the composition from its apparent classicism: the fact that the left wing goes beyond the edge of the bottom, or that the shield of the figure of Rome protrudes outside the edge, or that the drapery extends beyond the bottom edge base, are all hints of a ferment of expression richer in movement and color that breaks up the classicist style. In the 'decursio' in the shorter sides there are the plebeian ways of art, foundation of the Roman historical reliefs, reappearing here in a formal expression entirely new, violently contrasted between darkness and light, almost in an Baroque style" (Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli)