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Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio & Tempietto di Bramante
An architectural Kinder Surprise, Bramante's perfectly proportioned Tempietto (Little Temple) is tucked away in the courtyard of Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio, reputedly the site of St Peter's crucifixion. Lauded the first great building of the High Renaissance, it was completed in 1508, with Bernini adding the staircase in 1628. Bernini also contributed a chapel (the second on the left) in the church.
Read more about Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio & Tempietto di Bramante
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Chiesa di San Saba
Dating from the 10th century, this church has been substantially rebuilt. Cosmati marble work from the 13th century decorates the main door and floor, and on the left-hand nave there's a fresco of three naked girls in bed. Legend has it that these girls were saved from prostitution by St Nicholas, who threw stockings filled with gold up to their bedroom. Better known as Santa Claus, this story is the origin of the Christmas stocking tradition.
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Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Despite boasting one of the earliest Renaissance façades in Rome, this 15th-century church is more interesting inside than out. Inside the main door, on the right, you'll find Jacopo Sansovino's much-loved Madonna del Parto (1521), a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, revered by soon-to-be mums and doting parents.
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Chiesa di Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
Regarded by many as one of Bernini's greatest is this late-17th-century church. Faced with severe space limitations, the great man managed to produce a sense of grandeur by designing an elliptical floor plan with a series of chapels opening onto the central area. The opulent interior, decorated with polychrome marble, stucco and gilding, was much appreciated by Pope Alexander VII, who used it while in residence at the Palazzo del Quirinale.
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Chiesa di Sant'Eligio degli Orefici
A 16th-century goldsmiths' church designed by Raphael.
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Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola
A beautiful little square, the 18th-century Piazza Sant'Ignazio was designed by Filippo Raguzzini to resemble a theatrical stage - note how his wildly undulating surfaces create the illusion of a larger space. On its southern flank stands the 17th-century Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola, one of Rome's most ornate baroque churches.
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Chiesa di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
One of Rome's seven pilgrimage churches, the Chiesa di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was founded in 320 by St Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine. It takes its name from the Christian relics, including a piece of Christ's cross and St Thomas' doubting finger, that St Helena brought to Rome from Jerusalem. The relics are housed in a chapel at the end of the left-hand aisle.
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Chiesa di Santa Lucia in Selci
A small church best known for its 17th-century Borromini interior, Chiesa di Santa Lucia in Selci dates to some time before the 8th century. It's not open to the public, except for Mass on Sunday morning, but if you ring the bell and ask the resident nuns nicely they'll probably let you in.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli
Facing onto Piazza della Repubblica, this hulking basilica occupies what was once the central hall of Diocletian's enormous baths complex. It was originally designed by Michelangelo in 1593 but only the great vaulted ceiling remains from his innovative plans.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo
A magnificent repository of art, this is one of Rome's earliest and richest Renaissance churches. The first chapel was built here in 1099 to exorcise the ghost of Nero, who was buried on this spot and whose malicious spirit haunted the area. 400 years later, it was given a major overhaul by Pope Sixtus IV. Pinturicchio was called in to decorate the Cappella Delle Rovere and, in 1508, to paint a series of frescoes on the ceiling.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione
There's nothing special about the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione, but the Capuchin cemetery beneath is incredible: Everything is made of human bones. Between 1528 and 1870 the Capuchin monks used the bones of 4000 of their departed brothers to create the mesmerising and macabre display. There's an arch crafted from hundreds of skulls, vertebrae used as fleurs-de-lys, and light fixtures made of femurs.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace
Tucked away in the backstreets west of Piazza Navona, this small 15th-century church warrants a quick look. Inside, the main draw is Raphael's Sibille (Sibyls) in the first chapel on the southern side. Outside, it's the adjacent Chiostro del Bramante that steals the limelight. One of Bramante's finest works, the cloisters are a masterpiece of Renaissance styling, their classic lines a marked counterpoint to the church's undulating baroque façade.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Scala
The Chiesa di Santa Maria della Scala dates from the turn of the 17th century. The big white façade hides a gloriously baroque interior with a particularly flamboyant marble altar. Next door, the Farmacia di Santa Maria della Scala, which supplied medicine to the popes in the 18th century, is still run by monks from the adjacent Carmelite monastery.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria
Stuck on a busy road junction, this modest and not particularly enticing church holds one of Bernini's most extravagant and sexually charged sculptures. In the last chapel on the left, the Santa Teresa traffita dall'amore di Dio (Ecstasy of St Teresa) depicts Teresa floating in ecstasy on a cloud while a teasing angel pierces her repeatedly with a golden arrow.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Standing at the highest point of the Capitoline Hill, this 7th-century church offers a refuge from the crowds outside, a 15th-century fresco by Pinturicchio and, most famously, a statue of the baby Jesus. It's built on the site where legend says the Tiburtine Sybil told Caesar Augustus of the coming birth of Christ, and is very lively around Christmas.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Built on the site of an ancient temple to Minerva, this is the only Gothic church in Rome. First modelled on the Basilica di Santa Maria in Florence, it later underwent various transformations and little remains of the original 13th-century design. The surprisingly restrained façade is baroque, the rose windows a 19th-century addition. Look closely and you can still see Latin inscriptions on the façade - flood markers, with one dating to 1422.
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Chiesa di Santa Pudenziana
The church of Rome's Filipino community boasts a sparkling gold, 4th-century apse mosaic, the oldest of its kind in Rome. An enthroned Christ is flanked by two female figures crowning St Peter and St Paul; on either side of them are the apostles dressed as Roman senators in togas. Unfortunately, you can only see 10 of the original 12 apostles - a 16th-century face-lift lopped off two of them and amputated the legs of the others.
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Chiesa di Santo Stefano Rotondo
About the startling 16th-century frescoes in this round church, Charles Dickens wrote: 'Such a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep, though he were to eat a whole pig, raw, for supper.'Circling the outer of two rings of antique granite and marble columns, they graphically depict the various ways in which martyrs were killed in early Christendom.
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Chiesa di SS Giovanni e Paolo
Dedicated to Sts John and Paul, this 4th-century church retains little of its original edifice - the façade is 12th century and the brassy interior is 18th century. The arches in the square are the remains of 3rd-century Roman shops.
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Chiesa di SS Quattro Coronati
This fortified convent is dedicated to four Christian sculptors killed by Diocletian for refusing to make a statue of a pagan god. The squat bell tower dates to the 9th century but the main complex was built in the early 12th. The most famous feature is the Cappella di San Silvestro and its well-preserved 13th-century frescoes of St Sylvester and Constantine. Off the northern aisle is a pretty early-1300s cloister and garden (ring the bell).
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Chiesa dio Padre Misericordioso
Set in the midst of the 1970s Tor Tre Teste housing estate, US architect Richard Meier's startling white church is a classic of contemporary design. Built out of concrete, stucco, travertine and 976 sq metres of glass, it is flanked on one side by three graduated concrete shells (respectively 16.8m, 22.1m and 26.7m high), while on the other side a four-storey atrium connects the church with a community centre.
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Colonna di Traiano
Set among the ruins of Trajan's Forum, Trajan's column (AD 113) is adorned with painfully intricate reliefs depicting the victories over the Dacians (from modern-day Romania). It became Trajan's tomb, with his ashes buried underneath and a golden statue resting on top (later replaced by one of St Peter by Pope Sixtus V). Casts of the column at Museo della Civiltà Romana will spare you the sore neck.
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Forum Boarium
Piazza della Bocca della Verità stands on what was once ancient Rome's cattle market (Forum Boarium). The Forum later became an important commercial centre and had its own port on the River Tiber. Opposite Chiesa Santa Maria in Cosmedin are two tiny Roman temples dating to the 2nd century BC: the round Tempio di Ercole Vincitore and the Tempio di Portunus, dedicated to the god of rivers and ports, Portunus.
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Isola Tiberina
The world's smallest inhabited island was home to a 3rd-century temple dedicated to Aesculapius, the Greek God of healing. The temple's columns now line the nave of Romanesque Chiesa di San Bartolomeo ( M01B5, A3;h - & - Mon-Sun), while the remains of Rome's first stone bridge Ponte Rotto (Broken Bridge) are visible from island's south side.
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Scala Santa & Sancta Sanctorum
Over the road from the Basilica di San Giovanni, this is one of the few religious sites in the city with a genuinely spiritual atmosphere. The staircase is said to be the one Jesus walked up in Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem. Brought to Rome by St Helena in the 4th century, it is considered so sacred that you can only climb it on your knees, saying a prayer on each of the 28 steps. Indulgence is granted to pilgrims on Fridays in Lent.
