Santa Sabina
The Basilica of Santa Sabina all'Aventino is a Roman Catholic church in Rome with the rank of minor basilica . It is located on the Aventine hill in the XII. Rione Ripa , about 400 m southwest of the Circus Maximus . Here is the seat (Curia) of the Dominican Order .
history
Santa Sabina was built under Pope Celestine I (422-432), but only under his successor Sixtus III. (432-440) finally completed; this results from the Liber Pontificalis and the dedication inscription on the mosaic of the inner entrance wall. This inscription names the presbyter Peter , who comes from Illyria (Dalmatia), as the founder of the church, which was first referred to as titulus Sabinae and titulus sanctae Sabinae at the Roman synod of 499 . From this it is concluded that a "holy" Sabina was venerated as early as the 5th century.
Excavations have shown that the church was built on the remains of elegant private houses from the imperial era , the foundations of which rest on the Servian Wall . It is not certain whether the large room with the floor mosaic under the church entrance is an early Christian sacred room ( domus ecclesiae = house church). The excavations can be viewed as part of a special tour. In the middle of the right aisle wall , a column from the atrium of the ancient house below has been left visible.
A reference to the title saint can be found in the text of the legendary saint's life of the 6th century: Passio sanctarum Serapiae virginis martyris et Sabinae martyris . Then Seraphia, a Christian from Antioch, came to Rome in the 2nd century and lived in the house of a noble Roman woman named Sabina on the Aventine until both were executed as martyrs under Emperor Hadrian (117-138) . Her physical remains were transferred to the Aventine and buried there in a titulus . Research today assumes that the titulus Sabinae probably existed as early as the 3rd or 4th century and that it was named after the late antique house complex on the Aventine. Accordingly, it would be conceivable to see in Sabina the venerated saint donor of the church property on which the presbyter Peter financed and built the basilica in the 5th century; the alternative would be that Sabina was venerated as a holy martyr when the titulus was founded.
The basilica Santa Sabina with the choir in the northeast was aligned with the ancient foundation walls and the street layout of that time. The church, which was built almost simultaneously with Santa Maria Maggiore , is one of the oldest and most important Christian basilicas in the city.
architecture
From 422, a three-aisled pillar basilica with arcades as an exposed brick building (approx. 56 × 25 m) without a transept , with a semicircular apse and large arched windows in the apse, nave and entrance wall was built on the terrace above the Tiber , with the three apse windows of this size here can be found for the first time in an early Christian basilica. Of the originally three portals leading into the church naves, the left one was built over by the campanile that was built later . Spolia from ancient buildings was used as the frame for the entrance doors .
Twelve white marble columns, 22 of which are free-standing, with Corinthian capitals separate the nave from the aisles; are fluted Spoliensäulen with filled hollow strip in the lower third. In contrast to other early Christian churches, these columns and capitals are said to come from a uniform collection from the late 2nd century. This proves the effort that has been made for this church. At the foot of the third column on the left the name RVFENOS is carved; it could be the name of the quarry operator, dealer or stonemason.
Santa Sabina was one of the first churches in which round arches above the pillars displaced the previously traditional horizontal entablature, the architrave , and thus introduced a decisive new stylistic device into the history of architecture. The horizontal alignment of the room in the Roman temple building was abandoned here in favor of the tendency to divide the room vertically. The round arch now used established a connection to the upper window zone, where the arch motif is repeated. The arcade zone on the ground floor and the window zone were later related even more to each other in Romanesque churches by accompanying pilasters and half-columns and combined to form a unit. As a result, the church space was increasingly structured by yokes - a development that culminated in the Gothic era . In Santa Sabina you can see one of the first steps in this direction.
When the campanile was built in the 10th century, the left side portal was added. In 1219 Pope Honorius III transferred (1216–1227) the church and outbuildings dedicated to Saint Dominic , the founder of the order of preachers, who had lived with the first friars at the church of San Sisto Vecchio since 1216 . In the convent established at that time , u. a. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). There is also the Dominikus Chapel, which arose from the cell of the order's founder and was converted into a chapel in 1645.
The cloister was added at the beginning of the 13th century ; the numerous small marble columns have capitals with stylized bay leaves. On the occasion of the vaulting in 1518, he was decorated with pictures from the life of St. Dominic painted.
In the vestibule is u. a. a Christian sarcophagus from the 3rd century with a representation of the Good Shepherd .
Further alterations and restorations took place in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and in the years 1914 to 1919; During the last restoration work between 1936 and 1939, attempts were made to restore the original condition if possible.
Name Rufenos
Fluted pillars
Frieze above the arcades before the restoration
Window zone
Remains of the campanile and cloister
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inner space
Inside, the alterations and decorations of the past centuries have been removed by appropriate restoration measures, so that today the characteristic image of an early Christian basilica is presented again. It is a light-flooded room with a simple wooden ceiling. The 13 windows on both sides are particularly large (the wall width between the openings is only 1.20 m each, which required considerable structural experience); they bathe the nave in bright light and, through their abundance of light, emphasize the nave as a central location opposite the narrow aisles, which used to be windowless. All windows have been restored as transennen windows with window locks made of selenite according to the old pattern, as described in the Liber Pontificalis as metallum gypsinum . The panes have also been reworked from mica and tinted glass.
A frieze with artistic marble incrustations in geometric patterns runs over the arcades . The spandrels between the arches above the capitals contain representations of previously unexplained liturgical implements, each decorated with a cross and fluttering ribbons. This type of wall paneling with inlays from the 5th century, which probably also existed in other Roman churches, is the only one that has survived in Rome. The architectural design has ensured that the view along the columns and windows, the arcades and decorative ribbons is guided without interruption to the apse with the altar as the center of the Eucharistic celebration .
The art-historical importance of Santa Sabina has u. a. Walther Buchowiecki highlighted:
“Although compared to the oldest patriarchal churches, the basilica is young in the series of early Christian churches in Rome, today - after the destruction of Alt-St. Peter, the complete Baroque transformation of S. Giovanni in Laterano and the fire of S. Paolo fuori le mura - the oldest, largest and best preserved church in Rome, a paradigm for the construction of the 5th century. "
The originally existing apse mosaic from around 432 showed a representation of Christ on the Paradise Mountain and above the procession of the lambs to the divine Lamb in the middle. Christ and the apostles between the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem were depicted on the front wall of the apse . The current fresco in the apse is by Taddeo Zuccari (1569), who partially took up motifs from the original mosaic: Christ enthroned on the Paradise Mountain with the Paradise Rivers, surrounded by the Apostles (left) and various saints (right), including Sabina and Seraphia as well as members of the Dominican Order with its founder.
The mosaic on the entrance wall (around 432) above the five large arched windows originally still contained the four evangelist symbols as well as Peter and Paul on the sides ; Only the dedication inscription and two purple-clad female figures with stoles and book remain, of which the left represents the church that emerged from Judaism and the right the church that emerged from paganism; the inscriptions are: ECLESIA (!) EX CIRCVMCISIONE and ECLESIA (!) EX GENTIBVS (Jewish Church and Heidenkirche).
In the years 824 to 827 Pope Eugene II donated a rich interior decoration, in particular the Schola cantorum with two ambon , the ciborium and a new altar to accommodate the sarcophagus with the relics of Sabina and Seraphia. Around 1294 the grave slab of Munio de Zamora, a magister of the Dominican order, was set into the floor in front of the Schola Cantorum .
Apse fresco from 1569
Mosaic with the "Jewish Church"
Mosaic with the "Heidenkirche"
Tomb slab of Munio de Zamora
Wooden door of the main portal
The double door made of cypress wood (5.35 × 3.35 m) was designed around 432 especially for the main portal of this church; it is probably the oldest of all church doors that have survived. On the outside, 18 of the original 28 relief panels have survived. The double doors with the relief images have a unique artistic and iconographic meaning and are among the greatest treasures of Western art. Since the exact content of the lost tablets is not known, the original sequence can no longer be reliably reconstructed. A row of four small rectangular panels is followed by a series of four large, rectangular panels. Six of these tables relate to the Old Testament and ten to the New Testament, as well as two tables with symbolic content.
The panel "Jesus on the cross" in the top row is the oldest example of a depiction of Jesus Christ on the cross. The reluctance to see a depiction of Jesus crucified at the time of the creation was circumvented by depicting Jesus with the wounds instead of a real crucifixion, standing upright with outstretched arms (in an ornamental position ), opening his eyes and showing no expression of suffering each hand is pinned to pieces of wood with a nail, but without a real cross being visible. The background is a block wall, continuous from bottom to top, with triangular gables and timbers in front of it, which is presumably intended to indicate the location of the events in front of the walls of Jerusalem.
General view of the main portal
Crucifixion scene
organ
The organ of the basilica was built between 1936 and 1938 by the Mascioni organ building company. The instrument has 37 stops on two manuals and a pedal .
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P; Sub-octave coupling (II / I, II / II), super-octave coupling (I / I, II / I, II / II, I / P, II / P)
See also
- List of Cardinal Priests of Santa Sabina
- Werner Nolte's website with pictures and descriptions of Santa Sabina
literature
- Manuela Gianandrea: Manuela Annibali, Laura Bartoni: Il convento di Santa Sabina all'Aventino e il suo patrimonio storico-artistico e architettonico . Camposanto Editori, Rome 2017, ISBN 978-88-98229-90-1 .
- Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Herder, Freiburg 2016, pp. 206-213.
- Hugo Brandenburg : The early Christian churches in Rome from the 4th to the 7th century. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2013, pp. 184–195.
- Anton Henze : Art Guide Rome. Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-010402-5 , pp. 261-263.
- Gisela Jeremias: The wooden door of the Basilica of S. Sabina in Rome. Ernst Wasmuth, Tübingen 1980, ISBN 3-8030-1454-9 .
- Joseph Wilpert / Walter N. Schumacher: The Roman mosaics of the church buildings from IV. - XIII. Century . Herder, Freiburg 1976, pp. 13 and 307 with plate 24.
- 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. 767-802.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hugo Brandenburg: The early Christian churches in Rome from the 4th to the 7th century , Regensburg 2013, pp. 184f.
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian Sacred Buildings from the 4th to the 9th Century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg 2016, pp. 206f.
- ^ Barbara Borngässer: Cathedrals . Ed .: Rolf Toman. Parragon Books Ltd, Bath, UK, ISBN 978-1-4054-8839-6 , pp. 10 .
- ↑ 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. 772f.
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum . Freiburg 2016, pp. 207f. with floor plan Fig. 26.1.
- ↑ 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. 780.
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg 2016, p. 209ff. with text and translation of the dedication inscription.
- ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - Ein Vademecum , Freiburg 2016, p. 210ff. with a description of the picture panels.
- ↑ Gisela Jeremias: The wooden door of the basilica S. Sabina in Rome. Ernst Wasmuth, Tübingen 1980.
- ↑ Information on the organ (PDF file; 21 kB)
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 4.2 " N , 12 ° 28 ′ 47.3" E