San Sisto Vecchio

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San Sisto Vecchio

San Sisto Vecchio (Alt St. Sixtus, also San Sisto all'Appia ) is a Dominican nun - monastery church , titular church and basilica minor .

Location and overview

Engraving by Antonio Tempesta, 1593

The church is in the XIX. Roman Rione Celio in the south of ancient Rome , at the beginning of the inner city of Via Appia , opposite the Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of Santi Nereo e Achilleo and only a few hundred meters southeast of the former small monastery church of Santa Maria in Tempulo .

The first church on this site is dated around the year 400. The Romanesque campanile was built at the beginning of the 13th century, the nave , a single-aisled hall , was given its current shape in the years 1725–1727, but also includes parts from older construction phases.

history

Pope Anastasius I (399-401) founded a basilica at this point, which was initially called Titulus Crescentianae , as can be seen in the Liber Pontificalis . This name probably comes from a founder of Crescentia , about whom no further information is available. As in various comparable cases, by the end of the 6th century at the latest, the name of the founder was replaced by the name of Pope Sixtus II (257-258), who died as a martyr . This emerges from a text from 591 by Pope Gregory I (590–604) and from the Roman Synodal Acts of 595, where the new name Titulus sancti Xisti and thus the patronage of St. Sixtus is mentioned for the first time. This early Christian church was a three-aisled basilica with an apse in the west and an atrium in the east.

Today's church was Pope Innocent III. (1198–1216) rebuilt over the foundations of the central nave and the apse of the early Christian church as a single-nave longitudinal structure with a campanile at the beginning of the 13th century. In 1219 Pope Honorius III handed over the (1216-1227) the church to Domingo de Guzmán, called Dominic , who in 1215 had founded the order of preachers ( Ordo fratrum praedicatorum ). With the monastery built next to the church, the first settlement of the Dominican Sisters in Rome with a strict enclosure was established here . In 1221 the same Pope ordered the dissolution of the previously neighboring monastery of Santa Maria in Tempulo and the relocation of the nuns to San Sisto Vecchio .

In 1575 the church and monastery had to be given up because of the swampy and malaria-prone location. The Dominican Sisters moved to the church of Santa Maria di Magnanapoli on the Quirinal , later called Santi Domenico e Sisto or San Sisto Nuovo . Since then, the previous church of San Sisto has had the suffix Vecchio .

Title cardinal Filippo Buoncompagni arranged for the construction of a new facade and the conversion of the previous atrium into a free space in front of the church in 1582 . Inside, the furnishings were redesigned in the style of the time and a coffered ceiling was added .

Under Pope Benedict XIII. (1724–1730) a thorough restoration of the already dilapidated church was carried out by Filippo Raguzzini and the repopulation by a monastic convent. After Rome was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy , the monastery was nationalized in 1874 and the convent was abolished. In 1893 Maria Antonia Lalia bought the building and founded the Dominican Missionary Sisters of San Sisto with a renowned school. During the restoration from 1936–1938, the original arches and the remains of the former apse were exposed in the side walls of the former aisles.

Outside

Portico in the 16th century. Woodcut from: Girolamo Franzini, Le cose maravigliose dell'alma città di Roma, 1588

The early Christian church, built around 400, was about 3.5 meters lower than today's level; it was a three-aisled pillar basilica with a semicircular apse (approx. 47 × 25 m) and a sloping entrance front, which opened with three arcades to the atrium. Twelve granite columns supported the arcades and the top of the nave. On the right outer wall of the higher-lying successor building, the former partition arches between the central nave and the right aisle with the column shafts and four composite capitals from contemporary production can still be seen. Large arched windows were located above the arcades of the central nave as well as in the choir and in the facade.

When the three-aisled basilica was converted into a single-nave longitudinal structure at the beginning of the 13th century, the aisles were removed and the interior changed (48 × 12.5 m). The campanile that was created at the same time has triforias supported by small columns on the three upper floors .

The new facade built in 1582 with three central axes and two side elevations pretends to be intended for a multi-nave church. In fact, the nave only extends behind the central part emphasized by the portal and arched windows. The actual portal with triangular stympanum and volute consoles is framed and emphasized again by wide pilasters and entablature with segmented gables .

Arches, columns and capitals of the early Christian basilica are integrated into the remarkable baroque cloister with fresco scenes from the life of St. Dominic .

Inside

The walls of the early Christian basilica are said to have been covered with marble and mosaics . The remains of frescoes from the 13th to 15th centuries have been uncovered on the outer wall of the former central nave in a difficult-to-access room to the left of the choir bay at the beginning of the apse curvature . a. the Pentecost miracle and scenes from the life of St. Catherine of Siena and the martyr Eustachius . The interior of today's church shows the rich baroque furnishings of the 18th century, but also preserves some components of the early Christian church and remains of frescoes from the end of the 13th century.

Icon of Maria Advocata

Maria Advocata or Hagiosoritissa, 6th century

At the inauguration of the medieval church in 1221, Dominic personally carried the icon of Maria Advocata , which was already highly revered at the time and which had previously been kept in the neighboring small church of Santa Maria in Tempulo , into the new building of the Dominican Church of San Sisto . The icon remained there until the Baroque church Santi Domenico e Sisto on the Quirinal was completed in 1575 and has been in the Dominican Church of the Santa Maria del Rosario Monastery on Monte Mario since 1931 , where visitors are allowed at certain times. This icon, also known as Hagiosoritissa , is considered to be one of the oldest painted depictions of Mary and the oldest icon of Mary in Rome. The painter and the time of creation are not known; For various reasons, experts consider an emergence in the 6th century in the Syrian-Palestinian region to be likely.

Cardinal priest

The church has been titular church since at least 499. The current title holder is Marian Jaworski . For the remaining titleholders see: List of Cardinal Priests of San Sisto

literature

  • Hugo Brandenburg : The early Christian churches in Rome from the 4th to the 7th century . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2013, pp. 162f. and 322.
  • Walther Buchowiecki : Handbook of the Churches of Rome. The Roman sacred building in history and art from early Christian times to the present . Volume 3, Hollinek, Vienna 1974, pp. 908-919.
  • Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architectural Guide Rome. Menges, Stuttgart 1997, p. 261.
  • Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Herder, Freiburg 2016, pp. 182–185.

Web links

Commons : San Sisto Vecchio  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ gcatholic.org
  2. ^ Hugo Brandenburg The early Christian churches in Rome from the 4th to the 7th century , Regensburg 2013, p. 162.
  3. ↑ Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK), Volume 9, Freiburg 2006, Sp. 643f.
  4. ^ Lexicon of Christian Iconography (LCI), Volume 8, Freiburg, 2004, Sp. 378f.
  5. ↑ Walther Buchowiecki: Handbook of the Churches of Rome. The Roman sacred building in history and art from early Christian times to the present , Volume 3, Vienna 1974, p. 911.
  6. ↑ Walther Buchowiecki: Handbook of the Churches of Rome. The Roman sacred building in history and art from early Christian times to the present , Volume 3, Vienna 1974, p. 911f.
  7. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg 2016, p. 182f. with floor plan Fig. 20.1.
  8. ↑ Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architekturführer Rom , Stuttgart 1997, p. 261.
  9. ↑ Walther Buchowiecki: Handbook of the Churches of Rome. The Roman sacred building in history and art from early Christian times to the present. Volume 3, Vienna 1974, p. 916ff.
  10. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg 2016, p. 183f.
  11. ↑ Hans Belting : Image and Cult - A History of the Image before the Age of Art . 2nd edition, Munich 1991, pp. 353f. with fig. V.

Coordinates: 41 ° 52 ′ 50.2 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 45"  E