Santa Prisca
| Santa Prisca
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|---|---|
| Patronage : | St. Prisca |
| Consecration day : | |
| Cardinal priest : | Justin Francis Rigali |
| Address: | Piazza di Santa Prisca, 1 00153 Roma |
Santa Prisca is a church in Rome . It is one of the oldest titular churches in the city as well as the oratory of the Augustinian hermits and the station church . It is known less because of the church building as such, but because of the remains of ancient Roman buildings underneath, especially the mithraum .
location
The church is located on the Aventine Hill in the XII. Roman Rione , called Ripa , about 250 m southwest of the Circus Maximus .
History and building history
The beginnings of this church building, erected in the 4th or 5th century over a Mithra temple, are not known. The patronage of Sancta Prisca was first mentioned in the year 499 in the Roman synodal acts. An attempt is made to explain who this Prisca of Rome is about in a legendary tradition that began late; thereafter there are said to have been three different bearers of this name:
- the Roman martyr Prisca, who was beheaded and buried in the 1st century on the Via Ostiense and whose bones were later transferred to the titular church on the Aventine.
- the one called Prisca in the Letter to the Romans of the Apostle Paul (Rom 16: 3), wife of the Jewish Christian Aquila, who is said to have worked with Paul in various places, including Rome.
- the Christian Roman woman Priscilla from the patrician family of the Acilians , who is said to have made the area of the Priscilla catacombs in Rome available as a Christian burial place and therefore gave their names to these catacombs; this theory is now considered unlikely.
After the Christian religion had become the state religion through the edict of Emperor Theodosius I of 391 and all other ( "pagan" ) cults were banned , the first church was built here a century later, around 499. Mithraeum from the 19th century was built over and partially destroyed.
Pope Hadrian I (772–795) had the church renovated and a crypt built. At that time it was a three-aisled pillar basilica with a retracted apse and shallow side aisles . The barrel-vaulted crypt has a floor plan made up of three arms of a cross. After it was destroyed by the Normans (1084), a new building was built under Pope Paschal II (1099–1118), which was redesigned in 1455 and made Baroque in 1600 and 1660.
church
Exterior
The simple facade was designed by Carlo Lambardi in 1600. The portal is flanked by two high-pedestal columns with composite capitals and crowned by a simple triangular gable. The remaining wall surfaces are divided by two wide pilasters with Ionic capitals that stretch across the entire wall surface . A simple triangular gable rises above the architrave . The architrave, capitals, portal, gable and flanking columns as well as the oval rosette and its frame are marble facade elements in a front that otherwise only consists of brickwork.
Interior
The interior is as simple as the facade. It is an arcaded basilica , in whose pillars the 14 ancient columns of the first building were integrated in 1660 when it was converted into a baroque church. The apse was painted around 1600. In the baptistery on the right aisle there is a baptismal font carved out of a Doric marble capital.
Mithraeum
Under the church there are various remains of ancient Roman buildings that have been excavated since 1934. The Mithraeum, accessible via the right nave of the church, is one of the best preserved in Rome , along with the Mithraeum under San Clemente .
history
The courtyard of a house originally built around 95 AD was converted into an apartment around 110; at the same time, a nymphaeum with an apse was built in the house adjacent to the south . To the south of it, a two-nave building was built towards the end of the 2nd century, on the foundations of which today's church stands. At that time the mithraeum was probably set up in a hall to the east of the converted house. According to an inscription in a large niche in the main room, a follower of the Mithras cult was “born” here on November 21, 202 AD, that is, was introduced to the mysteries . Accordingly, the place of worship must have been in use by this time at the latest.
Today's visitors first enter the nymphaeum, then the crypt of the church, which was inserted into the existing Roman structure in the form of three arms of a cross with a barrel vault and whose wall paintings are from the early Baroque era . The crypt is adjoined by the mithra, originally consisting of an anteroom and main room, which was later expanded by widening the passage to a width of 4.20 meters and a general extension to 17.50 meters. Benches were carved out on the long sides of the room, which is covered by a barrel vault. The rooms to the left of the main room may have been used for initiation rites.
Paintings
The most remarkable thing in the main room are the preserved wall paintings above the benches. Two layers of paint with very similar themes were applied. These are various male figures, some of which have only survived in fragments. The portrayed belong to the seven different degrees of consecration of the Mithraic cult. A procession of Mithras followers can be seen on the right ; the inscriptions read from left to right:
- - Nama [patribus] / ab oriente / ab occidente [m] / tutela Saturni
- - [na] ma tute [l] a S [ol] is
- - nama b [el] iodrom [i] s / t [utela ...]
- - [na] ma persis / tutela [mer] curis
- - nama l [e] on [i] b [us] / tutela Iovis
- - nama militibus / tutela Mart [is]
- - nama nym [phis] / tut [ela] ...
- - [n] a [ma] nymph [i] s / tut [ela Ve] n [eri] s
The seven degrees of consecration of the Mithras cult were Corax (raven), Nymphus , Miles (soldier), Leo (lion), Perses (Persian), Heliodromus and Pater (father), each of the degrees is assigned a planet.
Using the example " nama l [e] on [i] b [us] / tutela Iovis ", the inscription after Coarelli can be translated as "honor the lions, who are protected by Jupiter", where the worship or honor is probably the meaningful word nama the Persian stems.
There are six more figures on the right. They belong to the lion's degree and each carry different animals or a mixing jug. These representations continue on the left. At the end of the procession there is a grotto with four figures, including Mithras and Sol .
Other finds
At the beginning of the main room there is a niche to the left and right in which there were figures of the Mithras companions Cautes and Cautopates . In the final round niche is a relief depicting Mithras killing the bull ; in front of it the lying figure of an Oceanus / Saturnus .
Other finds from the excavations ( sculptures , utensils, inscriptions) are in a small museum integrated into the underground rooms.
Cardinal deacons
List of Cardinal Priests of Santa Prisca
literature
- Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Herder, Freiburg 2016, p. 267ff.
- Hugo Brandenburg : The early Christian churches in Rome from the 4th to the 7th century. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2013, p. 214.
- Filippo Coarelli : Rome - An Archaeological Guide . Revised by Ada Gabucci, von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2685-8 , pp. 322–326.
- Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architectural Guide Rome. Menges, Stuttgart / London 1997, ISBN 3-930698-59-5 , p. 88.
- Anton Henze u. a .: Art guide Rome . Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, p. 256.
- 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, p. 629ff.
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter 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. 630ff:
- ↑ Lexicon for Theology and Church, Freiburg 2006, Volume 8, Sp. 598f. and Volume 1, Col. 898,
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg 2016, p. 267f. with floor plan Fig. 37.1.
- ↑ Anton Henze u. a .: Art guide Rome . Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, p. 256.
- ↑ Grundmann (ed.): Architekturführer Rom , p. 88.
- ↑ Anton Henze u. a .: Art guide Rome . Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, p. 256.
- ↑ a b Coarelli, Rome - An Archaeological Guide , p. 322.
- ^ Coarelli, Rome - An Archaeological Guide , p. 324.
- ^ Walter 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. 643ff.
- ^ All inscriptions according to Coarelli, Rome - An archaeological guide , pp. 324–325.
- ^ Filippo Coarelli : Rome - An Archaeological Guide . Revised by Ada Gabucci, von Zabern, Mainz 2000, p. 323.
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 52 ′ 58.9 ″ N , 12 ° 29 ′ 2.1 ″ E