Religious, Spiritual sights in Rome
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St Peter’s Basilica
In Vatican City, a city of astounding churches, St Peter’s Basilica outdazzles them all. Awe-inspiringly huge, rich and spectacular, it’s a monument to centuries of artistic genius. On a busy day, around 20,000 visitors pass through here. If you want to be one of them, remember to dress appropriately – no shorts, miniskirts or bare shoulders. If you want to hire an audioguide (€5), they’re available at a desk in the cloakroom to the right of the entrance. Free English-language guided tours of the basilica are run from the Vatican tourist office, the Centro Servizi Pellegrini e Turisti, at 9.45am on Tuesday and Thursday and at 2.15pm every afternoon between Monday and Fr…
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Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis
This pint-sized church marks the spot where St Peter, while fleeing Rome, met a vision of Jesus going the other way. When Peter asked: ‘Domine, quo vadis?’ (‘Lord, where are you going?’), Jesus replied ‘Venio Roman iterum crucifigi’ (‘I am coming to Rome to be crucified again’). Reluctantly deciding to join him, Peter tramped back into town where he was immediately arrested and executed, as portrayed in Caravaggio’s Crocifissione di San Pietro (Crucifixion of St Peter) in the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo. In the centre of the aisle are copies of two holy footprints supposed to belong to Christ; the originals are up the road in the Basilica di San Seb…
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Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
It might not look it, with its filthy façade and unappealing location, but this tiny church is a masterpiece of Roman baroque. It was Borromini’s first church and bears all the hallmarks of his genius. The elegant curves of the façade, the play of convex and concave surfaces, the dome illuminated by hidden windows, all combine to transform a minuscule space into a light, airy interior. The church, completed in 1641, stands at the road intersection known as the Quattro Fontane, after the late-16th-century fountains on its four corners, representing Fidelity, Strength and the Rivers Arno and Tiber.
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Chiesa di Sant’Andrea al Quirinale
It’s said that in his old age Bernini liked to come and enjoy the peace of this late-17th-century church, regarded by many as one of his greatest. Faced with severe space limitations, he 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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Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura
The biggest church in Rome after St Peter’s (and the world’s third-largest) stands on the site where St Paul was buried after being decapitated in AD 67. Built by Constantine in the 4th century, it was largely destroyed by fire in 1823 and much of what you see today is a 19th-century reconstruction. However, some treasures survived the fire, including the 5th-century triumphal arch, with its heavily restored mosaics, and the gothic marble tabernacle over the high altar. This was designed in about 1285 by Arnolfo di Cambio together with another artist, possibly Pietro Cavallini. To the right of the altar, the elaborate Romanesque paschal candlestick was fashioned by Ni…
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Basilica & Catacombe di San Sebastiano
Before you duck into the catacombs, take a moment to explore the 4th-century basilica on top. Much altered over the years, it is dedicated to St Sebastian, who was martyred and buried here in the late 3rd century. In the Capella delle Reliquie you’ll find one of the arrows used to kill him and the column to which he was tied. On the other side of the church is a marble slab with Jesus’ footprints. The Catacombe di San Sebastiano were the first catacombs to be so called, the name deriving from the Greek kata (near) and kymbas (cavity), because they were located near a cave. During the persecutory reign of Vespasian, they provided a safe haven for the remains of St Pete…
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Basilica di Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura & Mausoleo di Santa Costanza
It’s well worth searching out this intriguing medieval religious complex. In the 7th-century Basilica di Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura look out for the golden apse mosaic depicting St Agnes standing on the flames that failed to kill her. According to tradition, the 13-year-old Agnes survived the pyre only to be beheaded on Piazza Navona and buried in the catacombs (guided visit adult/concession €6/3; closed Sun morning & Nov) beneath this church. Across the convent courtyard is the 4th-century Mausoleo di Santa Costanza, built for Constantine’s daughters, Constance and Helen. The squat circular building has a dome supported by 12 pairs of granite columns and a vaulted a…
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Chiesa di San Gregorio Magno
You have to ring the bell for admission to this looming church, which is built on the site where Pope Gregory the Great is said to have dispatched St Augustine to convert the British to Christianity. Originally it was the pope’s family home but in 575 he converted it into a monastery. It was rebuilt in the 17th century and the interior was given a baroque facelift a century later. Inside, the stately 1st-century-BC marble throne in the Cappella di San Gregorio is believed to have been St Gregory’s personal perch. Outside, in the grounds to the left of the church are three impressively frescoed chapels: the Cappella di Santa Silvia, the Cappella di Sant’Andrea and th…
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Chiesa Santi Pietro e Paolo
One of the few planned developments in Rome’s history, EUR was built for an international exhibition in 1942, and although war intervened and the exhibition never took place, the name stuck – Esposizione Universale di Roma (Roman Universal Exhibition) or EUR. The area’s appeal (or lack of it) lies in its spectacular rationalist architecture. It’s not to everyone’s taste but the style is beautifully expressed in a number of distinctive palazzi, including the Chiesa Santi Pietro e Paolo. The area is still a focus for development, with Massimiliano Fuksas’ cutting-edge Nuvola (‘cloud’) congress centre being built here, and mayor Gianni Alemanno hoping the area may …
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria
Stuck on a busy road junction, this modest and not particularly enticing church is an unlikely setting for one of the great works of European art – Bernini’s extravagant and sexually charged Santa Teresa traffita dall’amore di Dio (Ecstasy of St Teresa). In the last chapel on the left, this daring sculpture depicts Teresa, engulfed in the folds of a flowing cloak, floating in ecstasy on a cloud while a teasing angel pierces her repeatedly with a golden arrow. Watching the whole scene from two side balconies are a number of figures, including Cardinal Federico Cornaro, for whom the chapel was built. It’s a stunning work, bathed in soft natural light filtering through…
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Bocca della Verità
A round piece of marble once used as an ancient manhole cover, the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth) is one of Rome’s great curiosities. According to legend, if you put your hand in the carved mouth and tell a lie, it will bite your hand off. Apparently, priests used to put scorpions in the mouth to perpetuate the myth, and Roman husbands used it to test their wives’ fidelity. The mouth lives in the portico of the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, one of Rome’s most beautiful medieval churches. Originally built in the 8th century, the church was given a major revamp in the 12th century, when the seven-storey bell tower and portico were added and the floor was deco…
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Basilica dei Santi Apostoli
This much-altered 6th-century church is dedicated to the apostles James and Philip, whose relics are in the crypt. Its most obvious attraction is the portico with its Renaissance arches and the two-tier façade topped by 13 towering figures. Inside, the flashy baroque interior was completed in 1714 by Carlo and Francesco Fontana. Highlights include the ceiling frescoes by Baciccia and Antonio Canova’s grandiose tomb of Pope Clement XIV. Surrounding the basilica are two imposing baroque palazzi : at the end of the square, Palazzo Balestra, which was given to James Stuart, the Old Pretender, in 1719 by Pope Clement XI, and opposite, Palazzo Odelscalchi, with its impressiv…
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Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo
The Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo, next to the Porta del Popolo, is one of Rome’s earliest, 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 ghost was said to haunt the area. It was overhauled in 1462, after which Pinturicchio painted his beautiful frescoes. In Raphael’s Cappella Chigi (most of which was completed by Bernini some 100 years later) you’ll find a famous mosaic of a kneeling skeleton. In the Cappella Cerasi, to the left of the altar, are two unforgettable Caravaggio masterpieces: the Conversion of St Paul and the Crucifixion of St Peter (both 1600–01).
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Scala Santa & Sancta Sanctorum
Boasting a genuinely spiritual atmosphere, the Scala Santa is said to be the staircase that Jesus walked up in Pontius Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem. It was brought to Rome by St Helena in the 4th century, and is considered so sacred that you can only climb it on your knees, saying a prayer on each of the 28 steps. At the top of the stairs, and accessible by two side staircases if you don’t fancy the knee-climb, is the Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies), once the pope’s private chapel. A spectacular sight, it’s richly decorated with stunning mosaics and frescoes, the best of which depict the life of St Sylvester in the Cappella San Silvestro.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Marking the highest point of the Campidoglio, this 6th-century church sits on the site of the Roman temple to Juno Moneta. According to legend it was here that the Tiburtine Sybil told Augustus of the coming birth of Christ, and today the church still has a strong association with the nativity. Its venerated statue of Jesus, the so-called santo bambino (holy baby) is, however, a copy. The original, said to have been carved of wood from the garden of Gethsemane, was stolen in 1994 and has never been recovered. The church has a rich interior, with a Cosmatesque floor and an important 15th-century fresco by Pinturicchio.
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Chiesa di San Martino ai Monti
In the 3rd century this was already a place of worship – Christians would meet here, in what was then the home of a Roman named Equitius. In the 4th century, after Christianity was legalised, a church was constructed and subsequently rebuilt in the 6th and 9th centuries. It was then completely transformed by Filippo Gagliardi in the 1650s. Of note are Gagliardi’s frescoes of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano before it was rebuilt in the mid-17th century and St Peter’s Basilica before it assumed its present 16th-century look.
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Chiesa di San Paolo Dentro le Mura
With its stripy neo-Gothic exterior and prominent position, Rome’s American Episcopal church is something of a landmark. Inside, the unusual 19th-century mosaics, designed by the Birmingham-born Edward Burne-Jones, feature the faces of his famous contemporaries. In his representation of The Church on Earth, St Ambrose (on the extreme right of the centre group) has JP Morgan’s face, and General Garibaldi and Abraham Lincoln (wearing a green tunic) are among the warriors. In the small garden outside there are a number of modern sculptures.
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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.
The monks are renowned for having commissioned, and then rejected, Caravaggio's Il Transito della Vergine (Transition of the Virgin), now in the Louvre (Paris).
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Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini
This graceful 16th-century church was commissioned by the Medici Pope Leo X as a showcase for Florentine artistic talent. Jacopo Sansovino won a competition for its design, which was then executed by Antonio Sangallo the Younger and Giacomo della Porta, while Carlo Maderno completed the elongated cupola in 1614. Inside the church, the altar is by Borromini, who arranged, on his deathbed, to be entombed here. A favourite venue for concerts, the church has a 17th-century organ that’s played at noon Mass every Sunday.
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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 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. Of particular note are the lovely 15th-century Renaissance apse frescoes representing the legends of the Cross.
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Chiesa di San Saba
With its leafy walled garden, 13th-century porch and beautiful Cosmati work, this picturesque church is worth a quick detour. Of particular note are the 13th-century frescoes in the left-hand nave, including one of three naked girls in bed. Legend has it that these girls were saved from a life of prostitution by St Nicholas, who threw three stockings filled with gold up to their bedroom. St Nicholas is better known as Santa Claus and this story is the origin of the Christmas-stocking tradition.
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Audience with the Pope
At 11:00 on Wednesdays, the pope meets his flock at St Peter's Basilica (in July and August at Castel Gandofolo). For free tickets, write to the Prefettura della Casa Pontificia, 00120 Città del Vaticano. If you're already in Rome, call or visit the Prefettura (06 698 84 631; h09:00-13:00) through the bronze doors under the colonnade to the right of St Peter's. When in town, the pope also blesses the faithful in St Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro) on Sundays at noon - no tickets required.
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Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti
Looming over the Spanish Steps, this landmark church was commissioned by King Louis XII of France and consecrated in 1585. Apart from the great views from outside, it boasts some wonderful frescoes by Daniele da Volterra. His Deposizione (Deposition), in the second chapel on the left, is regarded as a masterpiece of mannerist painting. If you don’t fancy climbing the steep steps, there’s a lift up from Spagna metro station.
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Chiesa di San Nicola in Carcere
An innocuous-looking building on busy Via del Teatro Marcello, this 11th-century church harbours some fascinating Roman excavations. Beneath the main church you can poke around the claustrophobic foundations of three Republican-era temples, over which the church was built, and the remnants of an Etruscan vegetable market. Marble columns from the temples were incorporated into the church’s structure and are still visible today.
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Centrale Montemartini
Antiquity meets Fritz Lang's Metropolis at the striking outpost of the Capitoline Museums. In an ex-power plant, marble Roman deities are juxtaposed with beastly engines and furnaces in a battle of new gods and old. You'll find the collection's highlights in the Sala Caldaia, among them the youthful Fanciulla Seduta and the milky white 1st-century Venus Esquilina, discovered on the Esquiline Hill in 1874.
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