San Giorgio in Velabro
| San Giorgio in Velabro
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|
|---|---|
| Patronage : | St. George |
| Consecration day : | at 685 |
| Cardinal Deacon : | Gianfranco Ravasi |
| Address: | Via del Velabro 19 00186 Roma |
San Giorgio in Velabro ( Latin : Sancti Georgii ad velum aureum ) is a basilica in Rome . It functions as a titular diakonia , rectorate church and monastery church of the regular canons of the Order of the Holy Cross ; it was also the station church for the Thursday after Ash Wednesday . Occasionally, the names San Giorgio al Velabro , San Giorgio in Fonte , San Giorgio della Chiavica or Santi Giorgio e Sebastiano are also found for the church .
location
The basilica is located on Via del Velabro in the immediate vicinity of the Arch of Janus . The epithet of the church is reminiscent of the ancient Velabrum , a swamp area on the Tiber . Legend has it that the shepherd Faustulus found the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus here. To the left of the church is the arch of the money changers (Latin Arcus argentariorum ), which, according to an inscription, was made in 204 AD by the argentarii et negotiantes boarii huius loci , the money changers and ox dealers, in honor of the emperor Septimius Severus and his family was built. Perhaps there was once an entrance to the Forum Boarium .
It is actually more of a rectangular portal than a real arch. Apparently Emperor Caracalla had both the name of his murdered brother Geta (killed in 212 AD) deleted from the inscription and his portrait cut off on the inside wall of the arch. The arch, richly decorated with tendril ornaments and in relief, shows a. Scenes of the sacrificing Septimius Severus with his family and outside soldiers with a captured Parthian . Opposite the Arco degli Argentari a gate opens to the Cloaca Maxima , the oldest and most important canal in ancient Rome; the vault probably dates from the 2nd century BC. The confluence of the Cloaca Maxima in the Tiber is still clearly visible today a little below the Ponte Palatino.
History of the basilica
In the market district on the banks of the Tiber ( Forum Boarium ), which is predominantly inhabited by Greeks , was already in the 5th / 6th Century a Christian diakonia . This also included a small church or chapel, which was established around 685 in a single-nave hall (approx. 12 × 8 m) with a small northern apse . Since the cult of the knight saint George was not yet widespread in Rome at that time , it is assumed that this first small church was dedicated to St. Sebastian was consecrated, from which later the double patronage SS. Giorgio e Sebastiano and finally S. Giorgio in Velabro developed. The irregularly running property boundaries of the Diakonie can be traced back to the corresponding ownership structure at the time of creation; they remained decisive for the construction of the basilica that still exists today.
Under Pope Gregory IV (827–844), around 830, a new three-aisled, flat-roofed pillar basilica with an apse in the north was built on the entire area of the early Christian diakonia . The outer walls of the flat side aisles , which tapered diagonally towards the end of the nave from the entrance side, had to adapt to the existing property boundaries; this is also the reason for the architectural irregularities that are still visible today. The portico and campanile were built in the early 13th century.
Church interior
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Eight column arcades made of granite and marble support the walls of the nave. Columns and capitals are predominantly spolia made of different materials and of different sizes, so that the arcades supported by them change in the apex height and therefore do not always have regular semicircular shapes. The rectangular windows above each inter column amaze with their simplicity. Between the second and third column on the right there is a fountain called Aqua Argentina , which was the cause of the church's nickname as S. Giorgio in Fonte .
Only a few fragments of the old furnishings have survived, including parts of barrier plates from the 6th to 9th centuries with braided ribbon patterns that could have come from the Diakonie or from the first church and are now set up in the aisles; also some Ionic capitals that were reused on the right row of columns of the basilica. Remains of the former apse mosaic are now built into the wall of the right aisle. The ciborium of the high altar was created by a master Nicola with his sons (approx. 1150). In 1295 Pietro Cavallini (or his workshop) replaced the previous apse mosaic with a fresco depicting Christ on the globe and on his sides Maria (as advocata ) and George (as knight with cross flag and horse) and on the right Peter (with keys) and Sebastian (as a soldier with sword, lance and shield).
George relics
In the Liber Pontificalis it is reported that a relic of the knight George's head came to Rome in the 8th century; it was first kept in the Lateran and then transferred in 751 by Pope Zacharias (741-752) to the diaconia ( in venerabili diaconia ) and the associated small church. From these George relics, a piece of a skull plate with the designation cranium s. Georgii kept in a reliquary below the altar ( Confessio ). The sources also show that Pope Formosus (891-896) in February 896 handed over some George relics to the Archbishop of Mainz Hatto I (identical to the Reichenau abbot Hatto III.) When he was crowned emperor with King Arnulf of Carinthia stayed in Rome. In particular, it was a piece of skull that probably came from the reliquary of the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro . The translation of these relics was the reason for Hatto to build a monastery cell and the St. George's Church for the Benedictine monastery on the island of Reichenau , of which he was abbot. The worship of the knight Georg began in the German-speaking area, first in the monasteries of Reichenau, Ellwangen and Lorsch , led by Archbishop Hatto , then also in St. Gallen and in the Duchy of Swabia and above all in the dioceses of Mainz, Strasbourg and Bamberg.
Contemporary history
In July 1993, a car bomb destroyed the main facade of the church. The campanile was preserved; the church facade was reconstructed. In addition, the building repeatedly suffered from flooding; this is indicated by a marking of the flood in 1870 in the area of the portico .
Cardinal deacons
Gianfranco Ravasi has been the cardinal deacon of San Giorgio in Velabro since 2010 ; He took possession of his titular church on January 23, 2011.
literature
- Antonio Giannettini / Corrado Venanzi: S. Giorgio al Velabro . Marietti, Roma 1967 (Le chiese di Roma illustrate, Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani).
- Walther Buchowiecki : Handbook of the Churches of Rome , Hollinek, Vienna 1970, Vol. 2, 49ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Walther Buchowiecki: Handbook of the Churches of Rome , Vienna 1970, Vol. 2, p. 49ff.
- ↑ Anton Henze u. a .: Art guide Rome . Stuttgart 1994, p. 176. Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Freiburg 2016, p. 339ff. with the floor plan development since the 5th century. Fig. 53.1.
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Freiburg 2016, p. 340f.
- ^ Michael Buhlmann: San Giorgio in Velabro - Saint George - St. George in the Black Forest. In: Vertex Alemanniae. Series of publications on south-west German history, issue 65, Essen 2013.
- ↑ Notker Balbulus, Maryrologium April 25 , St. Gallen to 896. Hermann von Reichenau, World Chronicle, the year 888, Reichenau before 1054th
- ↑ Vatican Information Services 20110117 (170)
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 22.7 " N , 12 ° 28 ′ 59.4" E