Description
The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere is the main church of Trastevere, in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, in Rome. Inside it keeps some of the most beautiful medieval mosaics in the city: a good reason to go in, even if you did not come to pray.
Tradition says it was founded by Pope Callixtus I and completed by Julius I in the 4th century, on the spot where, according to legend, oil had gushed forth. Today's church dates from 1138-1143, built by Innocent II, who also used marbles from the Baths of Caracalla.
The facade has a 13th-century mosaic: Mary nursing the Child, among ten women with lamps. The portico is by Carlo Fontana, from 1702, with a balustrade decorated with statues of popes, and the Romanesque bell tower has a small mosaic of the Virgin at the top.
The interior has three aisles divided by twenty-one granite columns, with Ionic and Corinthian capitals. In the apse Christ and the Virgin sit on the same throne, and Innocent II holds the model of the church.
Lower down, the Stories of the Virgin by Pietro Cavallini, from 1291, show figures that begin to have body and volume. The gilded ceiling was designed by Domenichino, who also painted the canvas of the Assumption in the center.
Also not to be missed is the Madonna della Clemenza, an icon perhaps from the 6th century. The basilica holds the relics of Popes Callixtus I, Julius I and Innocent II, and has paintings by Carlo Maratta and Giacomo Zoboli: among gilded mosaics and ancient columns, it is a church that tells centuries of Roman history.
Innocent II died before seeing the church finished, but left the money to complete it. The last major restoration was under Pius IX, between 1866 and 1877.
If you love literature, you will find the church and its building pope again in a story by Carlo Emilio Gadda, "La chiesa antica."
Tradition says it was founded by Pope Callixtus I and completed by Julius I in the 4th century, on the spot where, according to legend, oil had gushed forth. Today's church dates from 1138-1143, built by Innocent II, who also used marbles from the Baths of Caracalla.
The facade has a 13th-century mosaic: Mary nursing the Child, among ten women with lamps. The portico is by Carlo Fontana, from 1702, with a balustrade decorated with statues of popes, and the Romanesque bell tower has a small mosaic of the Virgin at the top.
The interior has three aisles divided by twenty-one granite columns, with Ionic and Corinthian capitals. In the apse Christ and the Virgin sit on the same throne, and Innocent II holds the model of the church.
Lower down, the Stories of the Virgin by Pietro Cavallini, from 1291, show figures that begin to have body and volume. The gilded ceiling was designed by Domenichino, who also painted the canvas of the Assumption in the center.
Also not to be missed is the Madonna della Clemenza, an icon perhaps from the 6th century. The basilica holds the relics of Popes Callixtus I, Julius I and Innocent II, and has paintings by Carlo Maratta and Giacomo Zoboli: among gilded mosaics and ancient columns, it is a church that tells centuries of Roman history.
Innocent II died before seeing the church finished, but left the money to complete it. The last major restoration was under Pius IX, between 1866 and 1877.
If you love literature, you will find the church and its building pope again in a story by Carlo Emilio Gadda, "La chiesa antica."