Rome: Sant’Agnese in Agone

It must be one of the most ignored signs in all of Rome: the pictogram in the vestibule of the church of Sant’Agnese on the Piazza Navona that announces the ban on photography inside the church. Not a single visitor respects this ban and it is not enforced by the…

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Rome: Santa Maria ai Monti

The history of the small church of Santa Maria ai Monti is closely connected to a medieval Marian icon that is said to perform miracles. The icon had been painted as a fresco on the wall of a convent of Poor Clares. When these Poor Clares moved out in 1308,…

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Rome: San Pancrazio

It is highly unlikely one will find hordes of tourists at the church of San Pancrazio. This is easily explained, as the church is very far from the historical centre of Rome and does not possess any great artistic treasures. What the church did have in terms of art was…

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Rome: Santa Maria in Campitelli

The seventeenth-century church of Santa Maria in Campitelli was specifically built to house an icon, the Madonna del Portico. This icon is famous for two reasons. Not only is it credited with having stopped a plague in the 1650s, it is also quite special because of the way it was…

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Rome: San Giovanni dei Fiorentini

Saint John the Baptist is the patron saint of Florence. Therefore is was self-evident that, when the Florentine community in Rome decided to build a large new church at the beginning of the sixteenth century, this church was going to be dedicated to Saint John. The San Giovanni dei Fiorentini…

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