Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo

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Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo
Patronage : Saint Onophrios
Consecration day :
Cardinal priest : vacant
Address: Piazza di Sant'Onofrio, 2
00165 Roma
Forecourt of the church
Rudolf von Alt (?), View of Rome from Sant'Onofrio, 1835

Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo is a monastery church in the Rione Trastevere in Rome . It is the title church of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 1945 the church and monastery has been the spiritual seat of the Knightly Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem .

history

The monastery was founded as a hermitage in 1419 by the monk Nicola da Forca Palena , who had acquired a plot of land with a vineyard on the Gianicolo . The building was financed by donations from Cardinal Giovanni Domenico De Cupis and Cardinal Gabriele Condulmer, who later became Pope Eugene IV .

The church, consecrated to Saint Onophrios , an anchorite from Egypt in the 4th century, is located on the Salita Sant'Onofrio at the foot of the Gianicolo . The Sant'Onofrio monastery with cloister and the church are considered to be the earliest Renaissance buildings in Rome.

Construction of the church began in 1439 and the interior decoration continued until the 16th century. Pope Sixtus V had today's Salita Sant'Onofrio built in 1446 as part of his urban development in Rome , which connects the monastery with the Porta Santo Spirito , one of the oldest entrance gates to the Vatican . The area was entrusted to the monks of the poor hermits of St. Jerome , who managed the property until its dissolution in 1933. Since 1946 the church and monastery building for the order of the Franciscan Societas Adunationis (Frati Francescani dell'Atonement) have been managed.

A famous guest of the monastery was the poet Torquato Tasso , who had visited the monastery because of his illness and died there on April 25, 1595 the day before his coronation and was buried in the side chapel of St. Onofrio. By order of the Pope, Tasso was buried in Sant'Onofrio; In 1930 the holdings of the Tasso Museum became the property of the Holy See.

Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

Pope Pius XII stipulated on August 15, 1945 that the seat of the Order of Knights should be relocated from the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem from Jerusalem to Rome, precisely to Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo. Here is also the grave of Nicola Cardinal Canali , Grand Master of the Order from 1949 to 1960.

Architecture and interior design

A wide two- step staircase leads to the forecourt, from which one has a spectacular view of Rome and the Michelangelo dome of St. Peter's Basilica . The fountain in the tree-lined courtyard was put together in 1924 from several historical finds stored in the municipal museums. The forecourt is flanked on one side by a portico with arcades. The life of St. Onofrio and St. Jerome, attributed to Domenichino and Sebastiano Strada , is depicted in three lunette frescoes . The next floor is divided by narrow rectangular windows that alternate with square, narrowly profiled fields, flat pilaster strips and friezes .

In the portico to the right of the portal, opposite the former custodian apartment , is the entrance to the cloister of the monastery. In the lunette above the Renaissance portal there is a fresco with a Madonna and Child by Claudio Ridolfi from 1600.

The Renaissance style interior is characterized by Gothic architectural elements. The single-nave church with a rectangular room is cross-vaulted from pointed arches and finished with a polygonal apse. The nave is accompanied by five chapels on the sides, which were consecrated in honor:

  • Saint Onofrio
  • Holy Virgin of Loretto
  • crucifix
  • Saint Pius X
  • Saint Jerome

Altarpieces and wall frescoes

Tombs, epitaphs, memorial plaques

Plaques commemorating the visits of Goethe and Chateaubriand

Sant'Onofrio is equipped with an abundance of tombs, epitaphs , coats of arms of builders and various memorial plaques. Two plaques next to the stairs to the monastery remind of the builders of the Salita , Pope Sixtus V and Pope Clemens VIII , who had the road paved.

Two plaques commemorating the visits of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1787), Giacomo Leopardi (1822/23) and François-René de Chateaubriand (1828/29) to Sant'Onofrio are set into the high retaining wall in the garden in front of the church .

In the portico next to the entrance to the church there is the tomb of the church's founder, Nicola da Forca Palena, as well as the coats of arms of the donor families who financially supported the monastery; in the corridor to the monastery are the tombs of the Italian poet and playwright Alessandro Guidi (1650–1712) and the Roman art patron Giuseppe Rondinini (1725–1801).

In the church itself you can see the tomb of Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) with a simple marble slab and an epitaph with a portrait of the poet, a donation from Cardinal Bonifazio Bevilacqua Aldobrandini (1571–1627) from 1608 and the elaborate tomb monument for Tasso des Roman sculptor Giuseppe de Fabris (1790–1860) from 1857, as well as the tombs for Cardinal Filippo Sega (1537–1596) with a portrait of Domenichino , Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti , for Giovanni Sacco, Secretary of Julius II , made by sculptors from the school of Andrea Bregno .

Cloister

Cloister

The monastery has a cloister from the mid-15th century, which is accessible via the atrium of the church. The simple basement with column-supported arcade openings is cross-vaulted , the lunettes contain frescoes depicting the life of St. Onophrius by Vespasiano Strada, Claudio Ridolfi and Cavalier d'Arpiano . The loggia level above is characterized by slim, polygonal columns.

museum

In the monastery there is a small Tasso museum, Museo del Tasso , which shows manuscripts and early printed editions of the works of Torquato Tasso .

Cardinal deacons

The church was elevated to title diaconia on July 6, 1517 by Pope Leo X.

Cardinal priest

On April 13, 1587, Pope Sixtus V was appointed title church of the Roman Catholic Church .

See also

literature

  • Anna Ferrari-Bravo (Ed.): Roma. Guida d'Italia. 3rd edition, Milan 2007, ISBN 88-365-4134-8 , pp. 598-602.
  • Anton Henze u. a. (Ed.): Reclam's Art Guide Rome . 5th edition, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-010402-5 , pp. 245-246.

Web links

Commons : Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fontana di piazza S. Onofrio

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 50 "  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 41"  E