Four churches

[jere7my]

Various dates - Rome

Rome is filled with beautiful churches, and it seems every one is encrusted with glorious ornamentation and packed to the rafters with great works of art. We were able to give some of them the time and attention they deserve, but for many we only had time to poke our heads in and snap a few photos. This is the grab-bag post for four of the latter type: Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Sant'Alessio, San Rocco, and Sant'Agnese in Agone.

Above is Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the only Gothic church in Rome. (The pointed vaults and deep blue color scheme are dead giveaways.) It's called "sopra Minerva" because it was built on the site of a temple to Minerva — well, Isis, actually, but they didn't know that at the time. This is also the church where Galileo was forced to recant. We arrived five minutes before services started (that's what the sign in the picture is telling us), which is a shame because it's pretty spectacular. adfamiliares visited again on our last day, since it's one of her favorite churches, but I was running around trying to find Enzo the street artist, so I only had the five minutes. I was able to take a picture of the stained glass window that proves the Dominicans are in league with Cthulhu, though!

Tentacled eyeballs. Why not?

Saint Alexius, the story goes, left home as a young man to escape an arranged marriage, then returned years later after living as an ascetic. He'd changed so much that his parents didn't recognize him, but they let him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. When he died there, identification papers on his body revealed the truth. His parents' surprise was exceeded only by our own when we walked into Sant'Alessio on the Aventine and found the very stairs beneath which he'd died! Supposedly! Borne aloft by angels!

Sant'Alessio was kinda gorgeous for an out-of-the-way, untouristed church.


Benedict XIII lunges for you on the way in.


They have a darling wireframe model of the church inside. Lookit the wee thimbles in the belfry! They use one for the well bucket, too:

We only popped into and out of San Rocco (next to the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis), since we had places to go, but I found it moodily opulent, with the feel of an attic.

On our last day, we visited Sant'Agnese in Agone, just off the Piazza Navona. ("Agone" has nothing to do with agony or martyrdom — it's the site of an athletic competition. "Piazza Navona" evolved from "Piazza [i]n'Agone".) Saint Agnes was stripped naked and dragged through the streets by a Roman magistrate who didn't like her vow of chastity, but her hair miraculously grew long and clothed her. Hooray! She was still killed, though — the church is built on the site of the brothel where she was martyred, and it is apparently possible to ask the sexton to unlock the door that leads to the 4th-century ruins below the church. (We did not know this, alas.)

Taken directly under the dome. (Yes, the purple blob is a mylar balloon. *sigh*) Here's the dove at the apex, surrounded by the windows of the lantern:




This Saint Sebastian was modified from a classical Roman original — presumably the arrows were added later. Sebastian is a very popular saint, among a certain segment of the Catholic priesthood. Can't go wrong sticking a Sebastian in your church.


In a side chapel lies the skull of Saint Agnes, in a golden reliquary which looks a lot like the Ark from Raiders. There are four keyholes on the right side — I can only hope it requires four functionaries with four separate keys to open the case.

As usual, you can find the whole set on Flickr.