The name of the church of Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli is a bit of a jawbreaker. Moreover, it is far from clear what exactly the Magnanapoli part refers to. Although the name seems to be a reference to the Campanian city of Napoli, it may just as well be the…
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…
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…
I was unable to take a good picture of the church of Santa Maria in Monticelli. The church is on a street that is not very broad and full of parked cars. Photographers who try to take a few steps back quickly find themselves with their backs against a fence.…
I had a bit of a laugh when I read in one of my sources that the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini has “perhaps one of the scruffiest church frontages in the Centro Storico”. The façade of the church is indeed quite remarkable. The travertine has changed colour and…
The church of San Bernardo alle Terme is dedicated to the famous French saint and abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). The ‘alle Terme’ part of the name refers to the Baths of Diocletianus – Thermae in Latin – which were built in the fourth century. The large train station of…
The Santi Ambrogio e Carlo is undeniably the largest church along the famous Via del Corso. The gigantic edifice is dedicated to two saints that have close ties with the city of Milan and the region of Lombardy, i.e. Ambrosius (ca. 340-397) and Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584). The dedication to the…
People standing in front of the church of Sant’Anastasia will probably not realise that this is one of the oldest churches in the city. The history of the church possibly goes back to the first quarter of the fourth century, when Christianity had just become an allowed religion (religio licita)…
The richly decorated church of Sant’Antonio dei Portoghesi is dedicated to Saint Antonius of Padova (1195-1231). As I have written previously, the saint’s real name was not Antonius and he was not from Padova either. He had in fact been born as Fernando Martins in the Portuguese city of Lisbon.…
The famous Saint Peter’s Basilica is connected to the equally famous Castel Sant’Angelo and the river Tiber by the Via della Conciliazione. This broad street was built between 1936 and 1950 as a result of the Lateran treaty of 1929. In 1870 Italian troops had captured Rome from the Pope.…
Two churches for the price of one. This post is about the famous twin churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli. Together they dominate the south side of the equally famous Piazza del Popolo. Although they are the product of one and the same project and…
I had been warned that a visit to the church of Santa Maria in Aquiro could be tricky. According to my source, visitors who wanted to view works of art in the building were not really welcome, while people who wanted to take photos could really get into trouble. Fortunately…
One would almost forget, but Rome of course also has a couple of Protestant churches. The San Paolo dentro le Mura – or Saint Paul’s within the Walls in English – is a particularly spectacular example. The church is alternatively known as the American church. It occupies a prominent spot…
The church of San Salvatore in Lauro itself is not that interesting. I nevertheless really wanted to visit it, and that had everything to do with an object that can be found in the adjacent convent. That object is the tomb of Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447). It used to be…
There are three reasons why the church of Santi Vito e Modesto stands out: The church is next to an old Roman city gate, usually called the ‘Arch of Gallienus’; The church has two facades, so that it is unclear to visitors which side is the front and which the…
People standing in front of the church of Sant’Eusebio on the Esquiline Hill will probably find it hard to believe that this is really a very old church, with roots in Late Antiquity. The church façade, which has recently been restored, mentions the year 1711 in Roman numerals. The medieval…
The church of Santa Bibiana has one of the ghastliest locations in all of Rome. The building is hemmed in between the Via Giovanni Giolitti, the Via Santa Bibiana and the railway tracks starting at Rome’s Central Station (Roma Termini). The church has no neighbours, so it is extremely isolated.…
In Rome it sometimes happens that a building or monument is unintentionally given the wrong name. That name then sticks, even though people later realise that it is actually incorrect. A good example would be the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which was long thought to have been built…
The Sacred Area of the square that is called the Largo Argentina is one of the most picturesque spots in all of Rome. Here we find, apart from one of the most famous cat sanctuaries of the city, the remains of four Roman temples which once adorned the Field of…
Saint Peter’s Basilica is the largest Christian church in the world. Although it is not the cathedral of Rome, it is arguably more famous than the church that does have the honour of the being the cathedral: the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. Together with the San Giovanni, the…