Santa Maria ai Monti

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Basic data
Patronage : St. Mary
Consecration day :
Cardinal priest : Jorge Cardinal Urosa
Address:
Via della Madonna dei Monti, 41 /
Via dei Serpenti

00186 Roma

The facade

Santa Maria ai Monti ( Latin : Sanctae Mariae ad Montes ), in literature also Santa Maria dei Monti , in Rome more often in the short form and inconsistently called Madonna ai Monti or Madonna dei Monti , is a church in Rome . It was built in the late 16th century and is considered one of the most beautiful churches in Rome from this period. It is the parish church and title church of the Roman Catholic Church .

location

The church is located in the first Roman Rione Monti on the Via della Madonna dei Monti named after her , with its east side on a corner with Via dei Serpenti about 300 meters east of the Augustus Forum . In literature, both street names are given to visitors. It gets its name from the location in this rione.

History and building history

According to legend, a monastery is said to have stood at this point in earlier times, which fell into disrepair and only served as a hayloft. In 1579 the owner's wife heard a tremor. Her husband then tried to clarify what was going on in the haystack with a sickle , whereupon a picture of Mary hidden in the hay asked him to spare him from injury.

The building was started in 1580 in the course of a counter-reformation building program under Pope Gregory XIII. started, planning and executing builder was Giacomo della Porta , the construction is considered his main work. In this context, the church is related to the architectural history of both St. Peter's Basilica and, for example, the Church of Sant'Atanasio dei Greci . It was built to store the image of Mary and also as a novitiate church .

Della Porta based its construction on both the facade and the interior of the church Il Gesù , whose facade he had built in 1577.

facade

The facade is two-story and five-axis. In the basement it is by pilasters with capitals of Corinthian structured order. The width of the travées increases from the lateral axes towards the center, which leads to an emphasis on the central axis. The outer pilasters of the three-axis central part are placed on the lower and upper floors, this is due to the width of the facade, there was not enough space, as with Il Gesú, to work with double pilasters. The actual entrance is designed as an aedicule portal . On the lower and upper floors, the areas next to the central axis are provided with niches as a further dividing element. Above the cornice, which is only cranked once, the program of the basement is repeated, instead of the outer axes, volutes mediate between the floors, and instead of the portal, a window covered with a perforated segmented gable is inserted, which is flanked by columns. The crowning gable, which is simple in itself, is staggered three times, following the structure of the facade. Grundmann comments on the facade: "With this harmonious weight distribution, della Porta took the genesis of the baroque facade an important step further".

Interior and outfit

View into the apse to the high altar

Here, too, following the example of Il Gesú, della Porta designed the church as a single-nave hall building with side chapels, the emphasis on the interior is on the crossing with the dome. The short nave is covered by a barrel vault, the middle of the three side chapels of the nave are a specialty. They are even deeper than the already deep chapels, giving the impression of almost a second transept. The arms of the actual transept do not extend beyond the width of the central nave with the chapels; the broad, semicircular apse with the high altar adjoins it. In contrast to the facade, the pillars of the crossing are fluted , and they are also provided with Corinthian capitals.

The church is richly decorated with frescoes , they all come from the school of Niccolò Circignani , called Pomarancio . Artists such as Orazio Gentileschi , Durante Alberti , Paris Nogari or Cristoforo Casolani (Cappella della SS. Trinità: Giovanni Battista, Francesco, Giovanni Evangelista e la Maddalena ) and others contributed to the altarpieces .

The image of Mary in the high altar is the one that gave rise to the building of the church.

The altar of the rearmost chapel on the left contains the relics of St. Benoît Joseph Labre , who died on his pilgrimage in 1783 on the steps of the church.

The church was founded in 1960 by Pope John XXIII. raised to the title church.

The novitiate containing Konventsbau , which adjoins the church is the work of Gaspare de Vecchi . It was built at the time of the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII from 1635 to 1639 and goes back to a foundation of Cardinal Antonio Barberini .

See also

opening hours

The church is open in the morning and in the morning from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and in the evening from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Fischer Pace: Kunstdenkmäler in Rom , p. 441.
  2. ^ A b Rosendorfer: Kirchenführer Rom , p. 136.
  3. ↑ Bussagli (Ed.): Rom - Art & Architecture , p. 419.
  4. ↑ a b Grundmann (Ed.): Architekturführer Rom , p. 179.
  5. ↑ Grundmann (ed.): Architekturführer Rom , p. 180.
  6. ↑ Wundram (Ed.): Reclams Kunstführer , p. 234.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 40.8 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 26.2"  E