POMPEY'S THEATER

TEATRO DI POMPEO
Largo di Torre Argentina/Campo de' Fiori/Via del Sudario/Via di S. Anna

61/55 BC for the consul Pompey

Restored in the year 32 BC for Augustus (27 BC/14) who had the curia sealed and walled in and moved the statue of Pompey behind the scene

Restored again for Domitian (81/96), Diocletian (285/305) and Maximian (286/305) associated with Diocletian

It was the first theater in masonry in Rome
Diameter of the auditorium 160 m (525 feet)
The capacity was up to 17,580 spectators

The scene had large statues of the Muses with Apollo, five of which still existing in the Louvre, the National Museum of Naples and in the courtyard of Palazzo Borghese
At the center there were two groves of sycomore trees bordered by lines of fountains

On top of the auditorium there was the TEMPLE OF VENUS VICTRIX opened in 52 BC and corresponding to the modern Palazzo Pio Righetti
Behind the scene there was the huge PORCH of about 180 x 135 m (590 x 443 feet)

On the side of the porch opposite to the theater there was a great big rectangular exedra known as CURIA OF POMPEY that was used as a Curia for Senate meetings. There was a statue of Pompey

In the Curia of Pompey Julius Caesar was killed on March 15, 44 BC
Traces of the Curia are visible in the sacred area of Largo Argentina

ARCH OF GROTTAPINTA
In the Passetto del Biscione, so named for the remains of paintings with columns, swags and putti
S. MARIA IN GROTTAPINTA
Known from 1291. Deconsecrated

ARMANDO DIAZ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SCUOLA ELEMENTARE ARMANDO DIAZ
Piazza Lodi 10

 1928/30 Vincenzo Fasolo (1885/1969)

“Vincenzo Fasolo had as teachers (...) G.B. Milani and G. Giovannoni, with whom he later collaborated, and from whom he learned (...) a visionary way of design, romantically inventive, based on traditional stylistic materials, emphasized by his spectacular and graphical skills. (...) He followed the cultural design of Giovannoni, sharing (...) with him the technique of 'thinning' rather than the 'gutting' of the buildings, as well as a taste for the local environment and for Roman traditions in a romantic way, of free and syncretic revisiting” (Antonino Terranova - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

SYRIAN SANCTUARY

SANTUARIO SIRIACO
Via Dandolo 47

It had three phases of construction:

1)       First century AD

2)       Second half of the second century AD for the rich Syrian merchant Marcus Antonius Gaionas

3)       The last one, maybe after a fire, in the fourth century AD

It was discovered in 1906 during the works for the construction of a building in medieval style called CASTELLETTO inserted in the area of Villa Sciarra owned at the time by the American diplomat George Wurts

It is a unique building for the plan and for the technique of construction employed, consisting mainly of walls in blocks of tufa
Two opposing sides separated by a central courtyard evidently intended to accommodate the faithful, on the south side of which the entrance to the temple opened

SECTOR TO THE WEST OF THE COURTYARD
Better preserved and most probably intented for the worship
Hall with an apse at the bottom, preceded by a sort of vestibule flanked by two long narrow rooms
In this room a “marble statue” representing Jupiter without attributes was found (maybe Hadad the Jupiter of Heliopolis, the chief god of the Heliopolitan triad or Osiris) sitting on a throne

SECTOR TO THE EAST OF THE COURTYARD
Diamond-shaped room with a triangular altar in the center, preceded by a small room with an apse and flanked by two more rooms with a pentagonal plan
In this area of the temple probably reserved for priests and practices of initiation was found the most important piece of the entire excavation:

A “Bronze statuette” 50 cm (20 inches) high, (now in the Museo delle Terme) representing a male character mummy-looking, whose body is wrapped in the coils of a snake
The small idol, probably to be identified with Osiris, was buried inside the triangular altar, apparently in connection with a ritual of death and symbolic resurrection

HOLY TRINITY OF THE PILGRIMS

SS. TRINITÀ DEI PELLEGRINI
Via Trinità dei Pellegrini/angolo Via dei Pettinari

Eleventh or twelfth century, formerly known as S. Benedetto de Arenula (St. Benedict of Arenula) connected to the hospice for pilgrims and convalescents founded in 1540 by S. Filippo Neri

Rebuilt in the years 1603/16 by Paolo Maggi (?/1613) from a design by Martino Longhi the Elder (1534/91)

In 1690 G.B. Contini (1641/1723) inserted eight columns in the pillars of the dome

FAÇADE
1722/23 by Francesco De Sanctis (1693/1740) with “Statues of the four evangelists” by Bernardino Ludovisi (about 1713/49)
Francesco De Sanctis after completing this façade designed and executed in the following three years the famous Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna

INTERIOR remodeled in 1858 by Antonio Sarti (1797/1880)

1^st RIGHT - CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CROSS
“Wooden crucifix” of the seventeenth century
Frescoes with scenes of the “Passion” of the beginning of 1600s by an anonymous artist influenced by Giovanni Alberti

2^nd RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. FILIPPO NERI
1852 designed by Antonio Sarti
Above the altar “Ecstasy of S. Filippo Neri” by Filippo Bigioli (1798/1898)

3^rd RIGHT - CHAPEL OF S. G.B. DE ROSSI
Above the altar “Christ with the Virgin Mary and Sts. John the Baptist and Filippo Neri” 1882 by Antonio Bianchini (1803/84)
Frescoes “Stories of St. Julius” about 1615 by G.B. Ricci (about 1550/1624)

RIGHT TRANSEPT
Marble group “St. Matthew “1587/1602 by Jacob Cornelisz Cobaert aka Cobe the Dutch (about 1535/1615), who had sculpted it for the Contarelli Chapel in S. Luigi dei Francesi. However, it was rejected by the client Matteo Contarelli

It was purchased by the Crescenzi family and it was made complete in 1615 with the “Angel” by Pompeo Ferrucci (about 1566/1637)

“The marked Mannerism of the apostle contrasts here with the Baroque figure of the angel, echoing the style of Francesco Mochi and elements of classical sculpture which Ferrucci liked very much” (Roberto Luciani)

MAIN ALTAR
“Holy Trinity” by Guido Reni 1625/26 (1575/1642) for Cardinal Ludovisi

PENDENTIVES
“Four Evangelists” about 1612 by G.B. Ricci

DOME
In the lantern “Eternal Father” 1612 by Guido Reni

LEFT TRANSEPT
“Sts. Joseph and Benedict” by G.B. Ricci, containing a fragment of a fresco with “Madonna and Child” originally on the outside wall of Palazzo Capranica and considered miraculous

3^rd LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. GREGORY THE GREAT
Above the altar “Mass of St. Gregory” by Baldassare Croce (about 1553/1628), who also painted the frescoes on the walls

2^nd LEFT - CHAPEL OF Sts. FRANCIS AND AUGUSTINE
Above the altar “Madonna and Child with Sts. Augustine and Francis” by Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavaliere d'Arpino (1568/1640)
Frescoes “Four Doctors of the Church and the four Evangelists” by Baldassare Croce

1^st LEFT – CHAPEL OF St. CHARLES BORROMEO
“Madonna and Child with Sts. Dominic, Anthony, Charles Borromeo and Filippo Neri” 1677 by Guillaume Courtois aka il Borgognone (1628/79), other paintings by G.B. Ferretti

SACRISTY
1644 designed by Giacomo Mola (?/1650)
“Annunciation” by G.B. Ricci and “Mass of St. Gregory” about 1572 by Jacopo Zucchi (about 1542/96) with the face of the client right in the center of the painting, Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who inspired Caravaggio for one of the faces of his Deposition in the Chiesa Nuova, now in the Vatican Museums

HOSPITAL-HOSPICE FOR PILGRIMS AND CONVALESCENTS
1622/25 by Giacomo Mola (?/1650)
In 1849 here died the Italian patriot Goffredo Mameli, author of the lyrics of the Italian national anthem

HOLY SEVEN FOUNDERS

SS. SETTE FONDATORI
Piazza Salerno 4

1946 Alberto Tonelli (1923)
It was built on a dodecagonal plan

It was entrusted to the Servants of Mary or Servite who have dedicated to the seven founders of their order: seven Florentines who had all together in 1233 a vision of the Virgin Mary
The church is a NATIONAL TEMPLE as it is built on the Memorial to the Fallen of two World Wars

HOLY ROSARY OF POMPEII

SS. ROSARIO DI POMPEI 
Via Cernaia 14b

1889/98 Pio Piacentini (1846/1928) in eclectic style

It was built in the area of the Campus Sceleratus where the vestal virgins who broke the vow of chastity were buried alive

“Here the term 'eclectic' is revealed in its most complete meaning, with the use by the designer of elements of ancient Roman, Byzantine and Medieval styles, freely assembled with the result, especially outside of a somewhat hybrid product. But it is precisely this formal indeterminacy that instead of placing the building out of time, it places it exactly at the precise historical moment of which it is the expression” (Massimo Alemanno)

FOUR HOLY CROWNED ONES

SS. QUATTRO CORONATI
Via Ss. Quattro Coronati 20

Fourth century, reusing a hall with apse maybe belonging to the ancient Titulus Aemilianae perhaps from the name of the lady who used to own the house

The archaeological remains are very heterogeneous and there is a rich stratigraphy difficult to interpret
Maybe it was part of CAELIOLUS with the TEMPLE OF MINERVA CAPTA and the QUERQUETULANA GATE

Mentioned in the sources for the first time on the year 595

Enlarged in about 630 for Honorius I (625/638) who commissioned the Chapel of St. Barbara, the semicircular crypt, the portico and the bell tower

Converted into a basilica in about 850 by Leo IV (847/855)
For the foundations were used blocks of tufa stone taken from the Servian Walls

It was damaged by a destructive fire caused by the Normans in 1084

It was rebuilt smaller in the years 1111/16 for Pascal II (1099/1118), with a second internal courtyard

At the end of 1100s/beginning of 1200s monastery and cloister were added

Between 1244 and 1251 the building was used as a residence by the Cardinal Rainaldo Conti di Ienne, the future Pope Alexander IV (1254/61), who had here a wealthy PALATIUM (palace) definitely connected with the nearby Lateran Patriarchate

Only the TORRE MAGGIORE (Major Tower) and the adjoining TORRE DI S. SILVESTRO (tower of St. Silvester) are left of the Palace of Alexander VI
Soon after, the building was chosen as the home of some senators of Rome and it housed cardinals and politicians

Renewal of the sanctuary and crypt 1621/27

Restoration 1912/16 by Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960)

In the west side of the building live some nuns of the order of the Augustinians, in the east side live the so called Little Sisters of the Lamb

The church is dedicated to the four soldiers Severo, Severiano, Carpoforo and Vittorino martyred for not worshiping the statue of Aesculapius and whose bodies were buried in secret by their friend St. Sebastian
The church is dedicated also to four Dalmatians sculptors (to whom was later added a fifth martyr) of the Pannonia quarries, killed on the same day by the order of Diocletian (284/305) drowned in metal cases for having refused to carve the statue of Aesculapius
The cult of the two groups of martyrs was joined together by Pope Miltiades (311/314)

The TOWER WITH FOUR-LIGHT WINDOWS dates back to the ninth century
It was first used for defensive purposes, then as a bell tower
It is the oldest tower of Rome and it is a unique typology, inspired by models from across the Alps

In the PORTICO OF THE FIRST COURTYARD faded frescoes 1632 maybe of the school of Livio Agresti (about 1508/79) or of the school of G.B. Naldini (about 1537/91)

INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH

WOODEN CEILING
1580 for Cardinal Enrico from Portugal

COSMATESQUE FLOOR
One of the earliest examples of this technique in Rome

WALLS OF THE NAVE AND OF THE COUNTER FAÇADE
Frescoes with gaps representing “Stories of Saints” end of 1200s/beginning of 1300s

RIGHT NAVE - ALTAR OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT
“Adoration of the Shepherds” end of the 1500s, maybe by an anonymous artis of the school of Federico Zuccari

APSE
Closed by a gate and used by the cloistered Augustinian nuns to sing
On the right seventeenth-century organ with ivory keys and doors painted with “Musical Scenes”
Frescoes in the lower order “Seven scenes of the saints sculptors from Pannonian”, in the higher order “Four scenes of the saints soldiers”, in the apse “Paradise with the glory of all the saints” (known as “chorus of the women angels” for adolescent effeminate appearance of the angels) 1623 by Giovanni Mannozzi aka Giovanni da S. Giovanni (1592/1636) helped by the plasterer Francesco Solario from Chiaronno

“Not even the Roman experience freed him from the ways of expression and from the provincialism of the Florentines of his own period. Although his light touch, bright colors and the looseness and panache of his production make him one of the most attractive Florentine painters of the 1600s, the character of his art is dated” (Rudolf Wittkower)

CRYPT
Cell with “Four ancient tombs” (one in red porphyry, another in green porphyry) with the relics of the saints
Frescoes in the vault “God the Father” and “Sts. Four Crowned” by Giovanni Mannozzi aka Giovanni da S. Giovanni

AT THE END OF THE COLUMNS, ON THE LEFT
“Ciborium” of the end of the fifteenth century maybe by Andrea Bregno (1418/1503) or Luigi Capponi (active end 1400s/beginning of 1500s)

LEFT NAVE - ALTAR OF St. SEBASTIAN
Featuring a fenestella confessionis where the reliquary with the head of St. Sebastian used to be kept. Now it is in the Museo Sacro Vaticano
“St. Sebastian Tended by Irene and Lucina” by Giovanni Baglione (1566/1643)

FURTHER ON IN THE NAVE
“Annunciation” by Giovanni Mannozzi aka Giovanni da S. Giovanni

SACRISTY
“Aedicula in marble with winged griffins facing each other” about 1500

CLOISTER
About 1116 maybe by Pietro de Maria, one of the oldest in Rome, perhaps the first ever built
“Fountain made of two overlapping medieval pools” assembled by Antonio Muñoz in 1917
It probably dates to the late eleventh century and it could therefore be regarded as the oldest fountain in Rome

Adjacent to the cloister there is the CHAPEL OF St. BARBARA with traces of thirteenth-century paintings

In the second external courtyard RECEPTION OF THE NUNS with “Liturgical Calendar of the thirteenth ceentury”

FIRST FLOOR OF THE MONASTERY
Extraordinary GOTHIC CHAPEL with frescoes of the thirteenth century discovered in 1996 attributed to the Third Master of Anagni, the painter of the frescoes in the crypt of the Cathedral of Anagni, one of the most important and admired medieval pictorial cycles in Italy

“At the time of presentation of the frescoes to the scholars the Hall was called 'The Sistine Chapel of the thirteenth century'. Beyond the excellent quality of the frescoes, the historical importance of this series of paintings is such as to oblige scholars and historians to rewrite entire pages of art history. The press throughout Europe has spoken enthusiastically of this finding. (...) The Gothic Chamber, however, is in a monastery of cloistered nuns who can not have contact with any outside person. To open the hall to the public was thus necessary the construction of a secondary access door. In December 2006, the then Minister Francesco Rutelli announced the end of the restoration work, postponing the opening to the public in March 2009. To this day (May 2013) the works necessary for the construction of the door have not yet begun. From a research of the Rome daily Il Tempo has emerged that the responsibility of the work is of the APSA (Administration o the Apostolic Heritage), an organ of the Vatican from which the newspaper has received no answer. And so the Gothic Hallis likely to remain closed. All blocked. For a small door” (From the blog riprendiamociroma.blogspot.it)

Oratorio di S. Silvestro 

Oratory of St. Sylvester

Frescoed in 1247 by one or more masters of Byzantine influence, Venetian, perhaps, for Cardinal Rainaldo Conti di Ienne future Pope Alexander IV (1254/61), who consacrated it on that same year

In the counter façade
“Christ between the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, the Apostles, and two angels”

On the side walls
“STORIES OF CONSTANTINE”
“Recognition of the true cross among the three crosses found by St. Helena on Golgotha”
“S. Silvestro resurrects a bull” who had been killed by a rabbi
With this miracle St. Sylvester (314/335) succeeded in converting both Helena and the rabbi and the bull became his iconographic attribute
“Defeat of a huge dragon settled in a cave of the Roman Forum” (almost completely gone) persistent symbol of paganism in Rome
“Constantine leper reassures mothers who ask mercy for their children” having had from the pagan doctors the advice to immerse himself in the blood of three hundred children
“Sts. Peter and Paul appear in a dream to Constantine”
“The imperial envoys go on the Soratte Mountain to look for St. Sylvester”
“St. Sylvester baptizes Constantine”
“Constantine cured of leprosy hands the tiara to St. Sylvester”
“Constantine receives St. Sylvester in Rome”

These paintings reflect the contrasts between Pope Innocent IV dei Conti di Lavagna (1243/54) and the Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen
Here the anti-imperial and theocratic ideology of the church is glorified with a flat but decoratively rich style. It is an original reprocessing of influences coming perhaps from the mosaics of Monreale or from the frescoes in the crypt of the Cathedral of Anagni

Rectangular apse:
Frescoes on the right “Deposition of the four saints sculptors in the coffers before being thrown into the river”
On the left “Flagellation of the four holy soldiers”
On the back wall “Crucifixion” and, in the upper part, “Annunciation”
In the pendentives “Four Saints”

In the vault “Four angels and four Evangelists” 1570 all works maybe by Raffaellino Motta aka Raffaellino da Reggio (1550/78)
On the frieze two marble funnels voice-carriers to allow to listen to the songs and ceremonies in the Gothic Hall on the floor above

Sts. DOMINIC AND SIXTUS

SS. DOMENICO E SISTO
Largo Angelicum 1
Mentioned in the sources since the tenth century as S. Maria Balneapolim

Church and adjoining convent built for the Dominican Pope St. Pius V Ghislieri (1566/72) for the Dominican Sisters originally in S. Sisto on the Appian Way

FIRST PHASE OF CONSTRUCTION
1574/78 by Domenico di Dario da Mezzana
Choir and bell tower 1579/91 by Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602)

SECOND PHASE OF CONSTRUCTION
1606/36 Nicola Torriani (active in Rome about 1601/1636), who was probably also the designer of the façade
Torriani was supervised since 1628 by Carlo Maderno (1556/1629) and from 1630 he worked with Orazio Torriani (about 1601/about 1657) who worked mainly on the interior decoration

COMPLETION
Interventions 1635/36 Francesco Peparelli (active about 1626 /d.1641), 1634/52 G.B. Soria (1581/1651) and since 1651 Vincenzo Della Greca (1592/1661), designer of the PORTAL and of the beautiful STAIRCASE, built in 10 years from 1654 to 1664 and finished by his son Felice Della Greca (1626/77)

It was an innovative Baroque solution for Roman religious architecture, originally framed by a portal demolished in late 1800s

“The idea of ​​this staircase full of fantasy probably derived from the Villa del Pigneto by Pietro da Cortona, but it was here that a Roman architect built for the first time a Baroque staircase in an urban setting, a prelude to the Port of Ripetta by Alessandro Specchi and to the grand spectacle of the steps of Piazza di Spagna by De Sanctis” (Rudolf Wittkower)

The construction of the church lasted about 90 years
Renovation of the convent in 1932 by Tullio Passarelli (1869/1941)

FAÇADE
In the first order
“St. Dominic” and “St. Sixtus” 1654 by Marcantonio Canini (1622/after 1669) who maybe also sculpted the statue of the “Virgin Mary of the Rosary” in the niche above the portal
In the second order
“St. Thomas Aquinas” and “St. Peter Martyr” 1636 by Stefano Maderno (1560/1636)

VAULT
Frescoes “Apotheosis of St. Dominic and patronage of Mary” and “Cardinal Virtues and Allegories of the Church, Heresy, Religion and Obedience” in monochrome 1673/75 masterpiece by Domenico Maria Canuti (1626/84) and Enrico Haffner (1640/1702) who did the drawings a quadrature (the geometrical frames)

COUNTER FAÇADE
At the sides of the window “Ecstasy of St. Dominic” and “Virgin Mary appears to St. Dominic” also by Domenico Maria Canuti and Enrico Haffner

“This work demonstrates the familiarity of Domenico Maria Canuti with the grouping of figures and with the achievements relating to atmosphere and light reached by Gaulli in the decoration of the Church of Gesu, in statu nascendi (just being conceived) at the time. But Canuti also introduced the novelty of the squaring that framed the entire ceiling. Rome acquired a kind of spectacular fresco of which neither Cortona, nor Bernini made ​​use of, a kind of fresco you'd expect to find in Genoa” (Rudolf Wittkower)

In the eaves of the roof are included iron gratings (two also in the external façade) that were used by the nuns to watch unseen the religious ceremonies

FLOOR
Rebuilt in the years 1849/52

1^st RIGHT - CHAPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE
“Alaleona Altar” 1649/52 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) according to a drawing in the Uffizi but executed by Ercole Antonio Raggi (1624/86)
Marble group of “Noli Me Tangere” by Ercole Antonio Raggi

2^nd RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. PETER MARTYR
Altar front 1709 by G.B. Contini (1641/1723) who also made the other altar fronts in the rest of the church
Above the altar “Killing of St. Peter Martyr” a copy of a lost painting by Tiziano Vecellio (about 1490/1576) for Ss. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice painted by one N. Senese, maybe Nicolò Nasini or Niccolò Tornioli (1598/1651)

3^rd RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. DOMINIC or COSTAGUTI CHAPEL
Above the altar “Vision of St. Dominic” about 1648 by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66), who maybe also painted the “Stories of S. Dominic” in the vault
The vision of St. Dominic is a miraculous event which took place in 1530 at Soriano when the Virgin Mary and the Sts. Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria appeared to a monk urging him to put a portrait of S. Dominic on the altar

MAIN ALTAR
1640 amazing “Ciborium” maybe by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Tuscan terracotta of the fifteenth century “Virgin Mary and Child” in place of the venerated Madonna Acheropita kept since 1931 in the new Dominican Convent at Monte Mario
Frescoes on the right “Battle of Muret Albigensian” 1639 by Pietro Paolo Ubaldini (about 1614/1684)
Frescoes on the left “St. Dominic and the miracle of fire” by the Belgian Louis Cousin aka Luigi Gentile (1605/67) who also did the six paintings “Life of the Virgin Mary” at the sides of the altar

VAULT OF THE PRESBYTERY
Frescoes “Virgin Mary protecting the Dominican Order” and “Christ Appearing to St. Dominic and to the Dominican nuns” also by Domenico Maria Canuti (1626/84) and Enrico Haffner (1640/1702)

3^rd LEFT – ALTEMPS CHAPEL
Fresco found in 1771 with “Madonna and Child” 1448/49 most likely by Benozzo di Lese aka Benozzo Gozzoli (1420/97), maybe detached from S. Maria ad Balneapolim or from the nearby Torre dei Conti
On walls and ceiling frescoes “Stories of the Passion of Christ” maybe by Pietro Paolo Ubaldini (about 1614/about 1684)

2^nd LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. CATHERINE OF SIENA
Above the altar “Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena with Jesus” 1650 by Francesco Allegrini (1587/1663)

1^st LEFT - CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY
Above the altar “Virgin Mary and Child give the rosary to Sts. Dominic and Catherine” by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona
Other paintings maybe by Clemente Maioli (1634/73)

CHOIR OF THE NUNS
Located behind the altar, according to the scheme codified in 1577 by St. Charles Borromeo, who wanted the cloistered nuns out of sight during ceremonies
Restored in 1749

ALTAR 1671 by Vincenzo Della Greca (1592/1661)

Four large murals on the walls maybe by G.B. Ricci

To the right of the altar “St. Peter hands over the keys to St. Pius V” 1749 by Mattia Tome where it is visible the front of the church with the steps by Vincenzo e Felice Della Greca

DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY - “ANGELICUM”
In the annexed monastery formerly of the Dominican Sisters of Lombardy

CAPITULAR HALL
Built in 1668
“Cross painted on board” of the first half of 1200s according to the iconography of the Christus patiens by an unknown artist of the Lazio area
Triptych “Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Sts. Dominic and Aurea” and “Four Stories of St. Aurea” in the side doors 1358 by the Sienese Lippo di Vanni (active 1340/75)
It is his only signed and dated work, from the church of St. Aurea on Via Giulia today Chiesa dello Spirito Santo dei Napoletani
“Crucifixion” by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582/1647) formerly in the Altemps Chapel

INTERNATIONAL BOARDING SCHOOL St. THOMAS AQUINAS

On Via degli Ibernesi
Institution of Dominican studies in the sixteenth century building converted in 1964 by Lucio Passarelli (1922) with his brothers Vincenzo (1904/85) and Fausto (1910/98)

St. MARY HODIGITRIA

S. MARIA ODIGITRIA

Via del Tritone 82

1594/96 for the Confraternity in honor of the Virgin Mary of Constantinople, patron in Rome of the Sicilian-Catalan nation

Hodigitria means: The one who shows the way

It was sacked in 1799 by French troops

Rebuilt in the years 1814/17 by Francesco Manno (1752/1831)

On the four side altars in 1988 were placed modern art paintings by Sicilian artists

1^st CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

Above the altar “Martyrdom of St. Lucy” by Salvatore Fiume (1915/97) who was born in Comiso

Lunettes painted in the seventeenth-century with “History of St. Mary Magdalene” by Giovanni Valesio (1561/1640)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

Above the altar “S. Rosalia” by Mario Bardi (1922/98) from Palermo

“Between chronicle and memory, the paintings of Bardi for over sixty years have spanned several seasons (some more 'realistic', some more 'baroque') without ever abandoning the oscillations of taste, always absorbed in his true inner motives. In all, sometimes more melancholic or existentialist, sometimes more turgidly and sensuously pictorial, the sound and solar splendor of his Sicily” (Official Website - www.mariobardi.it)

MAIN ALTAR

Copy the ancient icon donated in 1972 by the Patriarch of Constantinople and placed here as a replacement of the votive picture now in the sacristy

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

Above the altar “St. Agatha healed by St. Peter” by Sebastiano Milluzzo (1915/2011) from Catania

“The bright altarpiece was commissioned, along with the three other ones also entrusted to Sicilians painters, by Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo. The representation captures the heartfelt participation with the mysterious moment when the miracle is about to happen. This work has always been considered of great artistic value and rich in authentic religious and ethical inspiration” (Antonio Blandini - www.ecodelsud.over - blog.net)

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

Above the altar “Sts. Agathon, Methodius and Leo II” by Giuseppe Migneco (1908/97) from Messina

ORATORIO

“S. Rosalia with Two Angels” by Giovanni Valesio (1561/1640)

St. MARY MEDIATRIX

S. MARIA MEDIATRICE

Via di S. Maria Mediatrice 53 - Aurelio

1942/50 Giovanni Muzio (1893/1982) who was also the architect of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth

It was built on the Gelsomino (Jasmine) Hill, a southwest extension of the Vatican Hill

Behind the church was also built the CURIA DEI MINORI FRANCESCANI (Headquarters of the Minor Friars) a building in the shape of the letter C facing the garden

It is one of the finest examples of sacred architecture of the postwar period characterized by a sober external monumentality and a striking internal decorative richness

“Dissociating from the late nineteenth-century eclecticism, from Art Nouveau and from the emerging rationalism, Giovanni Muzio's research comes close to the artistic currents of metaphysical painting and the so called 'Novecento' (Twentieth Century) style” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“The church is located at the top of the composition created by Muzio, preceded by a large treed area, bordered by lower buildings with which it seems to reach out towards the city. The masses of brick-coated walls are barely marked by divisions that do not affect the grandeur. The dome with octagonal base rises with pyramidal shape; the entrance is made out of an arch framed by a double row of columns of Carrara marble” (Raffaella Catini - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Stations of the Cross” by Domenico Mastroianni (1876/1962)

RIGHT ALTAR

Bronze relief “St. Francis stigmatized” by Ivan Mestrovic (1883/1962)

MOSAIC IN THE DOME

“Virgin Mary Queen enthroned between saints, prophets, angels and symbols of the Evangelists” by Giorgio Quaroni (1907 /60), Adriano Alessandrini and Ugo Chyurlia

PRESBYTERY

Huge fresco “The Apotheosis of the Franciscan Order” by Gisberto Ceracchini (1889/1982)

“In Rome he attended a drawing school for blue-collar workers, but he should be regarded, in fact, as self-taught. His works appeared in exhibitions of the 'Novecento' (Twentieth Century) style, and in the most important exhibitions of Italian art. (...) From his first exhibited work (Discord, 1921) to the last ones, Ceracchini, widely criticized, did not change the substance of his style that arises on the revaluation of the taste for the so called 'primitive' (early renaissance) painters, which took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, and for those formal features (design and color) historically characteristic of that period. His language, somewhat naive, was a 'sermo rusticus' (rustic vocabulary), which does not mean at all uneducated or instinctive” (Virgilio Guzzi - Enciclopedia Treccani)

Painting “Elizabeth of Hungary” and “Blessed Giovanni Forest” by Francesco Avenali

LEFT ALTAR

Marble relief “Our Lady Mediatrix” by Francesco Nagni (1897/1977)

St. MARY IN THE LITTLE TEMPLE

S. MARIA IN TEMPULO

Via di Valle delle Camene 3/5 - Deconsecrated

End of the sixth century, mentioned by the sources as S. Agata 

Maybe built on the ruins of a temple, from which the name probably derives

Two sides of the BELL TOWER of about 1155 remain

Here was the Fons Camenarum, spring sacred to the Muses (the Camenae were goddesses identified with the Greek Muses): the waters, believed to be miraculous, were used by the Vestal Virgins for their worship 

Attached to the church was a Benedictine monastery until 1222, when it was abolished by Honorius III Savelli (1216/27)

The icon of the Virgin Mary with the Child which used to be here is now preserved in the church of S. Maria del Rosario a Monte Mario 

The church has therefore been deconsecrated for almost 800 years 

Over the centuries it was occupied by private households, used as a barn or even as a studio for artists

Now it belongs to the City of Rome and it is used for civil weddings

St. MARY IN MONTERONE

S. MARIA IN MONTERONE

Via Monterone 75

Mentioned in the sources for the first time in 1186

Rebuilt in 1682

It was entrusted in 1728 to the Mercedari monks of the Congregation of Holy Mary of Mercy for the ransom of slaves

Restored with the raising of the floor in 1754 maybe by Domenico Gregorini (1692/1777)

Restored again in 1848

The church is located at the center of the area where there was once the STAGNUM AGRIPPAE, an the ancient artificial lake of the Baths of Agrippa

TO THE RIGHT OF THE ENTRANCE

“Tombstone of Giovanni Bazzano” d. 1406 originally embedded in the floor

EIGHT ANCIENT COLUMNS

RIGHT NAVE - ALTAR OF THE SOULS IN PURGATORY

Painting “Assumption” 1830 by Giovanni Gagliardi

AT THE END OF THE RIGHT NAVE - CHAPEL OF St. JOSEPH

Above the altar “Madonna with Child, St. John the Baptist and an Angel” of the end of the seventeenth century

On the right wall “Tomb of Anna Moroni” 1647

TO THE RIGHT OF THE ALTAR

“Memory funeral of John Rinuccini” 1730

MAIN ALTAR

“Sts. Peter Nolasco, Peter Paschasius and two slaves in chains venerating the Virgin Mary and Child” maybe by Pompeo Batoni (1708/87) or of his pupil Gaspare Serenari (1707/59)

TO THE LEFT OF THE ALTAR

“Tomb of Cardinal Stefano Durazzo” 1667, with winged skeleton

AT THE END OF THE LEFT NAVE - CHAPEL OF St. ALPHONSUS MARIA DE' LIGUORI

1848 Pietro Camporese il Giovane (1792/1873)

Above the altar “Stories of St. Alphonsus” 1848, on the right “St. Alphonsus in ecstasy in front of the Virgin Mary” and on the left “St. Alphonsus gives the rule to the Redemptorists” by Donato De Vivo

On the left “Tomb of Vincenzo Campanari” 1858

BUILDING OF THE CONVENT OF S. MARIA IN MONTERONE

To the right of the church

1735 Francesco Bianchi for the brothers Mercedari, with bizarre and interesting decoration on the façade