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The Churches of Rome

[A large sort of gazebo of marble columns inside a church, with a fresco in the background. It is the ciborium over the main altar of the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro (Rome).]

The ciborium of S. Giorgio in Velabro with Cavallini's frescoes behind it are among the very many beautiful sights in Rome's churches, from pre-Christian vestiges to works of the 21st century.

It is next to impossible to present such a wealth of antiquities and works of art on a single website, but believe it or not, I'm going to try.

The Basics

The first step seems obvious, and is thus underway: three essential books on the subject — one of them still incomplete — and all of them needing proofreading, additions, illustrations. The books are all in Italian:

Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo: the very scholarly, excellent book by Christian Hülsen (1927) in which all the sources on the topic are summarized, studied and assessed; both the medieval and Renaissance catalogs and the works of later writers thru the time in which he wrote. With an extremely large and detailed map of the medieval City.

[11/13/01: 750 printed pages
organized in about 30 webpages
— 435 pages already up, or 58% ]

Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX: this is the famous, classic text by Rome-born Mariano Armellini, (2d edition, 1891); less systematic and much less careful, but includes the churches founded after the Middle Ages — plus a wealth of anecdotes and a characteristic human quality not found in Hülsen.

[9/29/01: 938 printed pages
set up as 24 webpages
— 100% online, although unproofed ]

Pitture, Sculture e Architetture esposte al pubblico in Roma: Filippo Titi's guide, in the 1763 edition as revised by Giovanni Bottari. The book in fact covers mostly churches, and within them, the paintings: it can be thought of as a primary source on baroque art. It includes an index of over nine hundred artists, and another appendix on the contents of the Capitoline Museum.

[8/11/01: 590 small printed pages
set up as 10 webpages + indexes
— 100% online, although unproofed ]

To these large-scale works, from time to time I'll be adding some more detailed items:

"Roman Church Mosaics of the First Nine Centuries" by William Warner Bishop, a journal article published in 1906 (AJA 10:251‑281): in which the author describes and illustrates the oldest mosaics in Rome, in 22 churches, and outlines the beginning of a typology.

[ 9 photos ]

The Individual Churches
(Each photo is a link)

[A throne of golden mosaic against a wall of the same. It is the throne or cathedra of the Pope as bishop of Rome, in the apse of S. John Lateran.]

St. John Lateran
Cathedral of the Pope, the Patriarch of the West

1 rather tangential page, 4 photos

St. Peter's
Patriarch of Constantinople

S. Paolo fuori le Mura
Patriarch of Alexandria

S. Maria Maggiore
Patriarch of Antioch

S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura
Patriarch of Jerusalem

S. Maria ad Martyres
(the Pantheon)

3 pages, 6 photos

Domine Quo Vadis?

il Gesù

Gesù e Maria

Madonna
dell' Archetto

Nostra Signora
del Sacro Cuore

S. Agata
dei Goti

S. Agata
in Trastevere

S. Agnese
fuori le Mura

S. Agostino

S. Alessio

S. Alfonso
all' Esquilino

SS. Ambrogio e Carlo
al Corso

S. Anastasia

SS. Andrea, Barbara, e Silvia
sul Celio

S. Andrea
della Valle

SS. Andrea e Claudio
dei Borgognoni

S. Anna
dei Palafrenieri

S. Anselmo

S. Antonio
da Padova

S. Antonio
dei Portoghesi

S. Balbina

S. Barbara
dei Librai

2 pages, 4 photos

S. Bartolomeo
all' Isola

2 pages, 3 photos

S. Bernardo
alle Terme

S. Biagio
degli Armeni

S. Bibiana

S. Carlo
ai Catinari

S. Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane

S. Caterina
a Magnanapoli

S. Caterina
della Rota

SS. Celso e Giuliano

S. Costanza

S. Crisogono

SS. Crocifisso

S. Dorotea

S. Eustachio

S. Filippo Neri

S. Francesca Romana

S. Francesco a Ripa

S. Giacomo
in Augusta

SS. Gioacchino e Anna
ai Monti

S. Giorgio
in Velabro

9 pages, 10 photos

S. Giovanni
Calibita

S. Giovanni
dei Fiorentini

S. Giovanni
della Malva

S. Giovanni
in Oleo

S. Giovanni
a Porta Latina

SS. Giovanni e Paolo

S. Girolamo della Carità

S. Gregorio Magno
al Celio

S. Ignazio

S. Ivo
alla Sapienza

S. Lorenzo
in Lucina

S. Lorenzo
in Miranda

1 page, 1 photo

S. Lorenzo
in Panisperna

S. Luigi
dei Francesi

S. Marco

S. Margherita

S. Maria
degli Angeli

S. Maria
dell' Anima

1 page, 2 photos

S. Maria
in Aquiro

S. Maria
in Aracoeli

S. Maria
della Consolazione

S. Maria
in Cosmedin

3 pages, 11 photos

S. Maria
del Divino Amore

S. Maria
in Domnica

1 page, 1 photo

S. Maria Egiziaca

1 page, 1 photo

S. Maria della Luce

S. Maria Maddalena

S. Maria
sopra Minerva

S. Maria
dei Miracoli

S. Maria
della Misericordia
a Campo Verano

S. Maria
in Monserrato

S. Maria
in Montesanto

S. Maria
in Monticelli

S. Maria
dell' Orazione e Morte

S. Maria
della Pace

S. Maria
del Priorato

S. Maria
della Quercia

S. Maria
della Scala

S. Maria
Traspontina

S. Maria
in Trastevere

4 pages, 4 photos

S. Maria
in Trivio

S. Maria
in Vallicella
(Chiesa Nuova)

S. Maria
della Vittoria

S. Martino
ai Monti

SS. Nereo e Achilleo

S. Nicola
a Carcere

S. Omobono

S. Pantaleo

S. Paolo
entro le Mura

S. Paolo
alla Regola

S. Pietro
in Carcere

1 page, 1 photo

S. Pietro
in Montorio

S. Prassede

S. Prisca

S. Pudenziana

S. Rocco

S. Saba

S. Sabina

13 pages, 14 photos

S. Salvatore
in Lauro

S. Salvatore
in Onda

S. Sebastiano

S. Silvestro
in Capite

2 pages, 4 photos

S. Sisto Vecchio

S. Spirito in Sassia

S. Stefano
Rotondo

1 page, 2 photos

S. Susanna

S. Tommaso
in Formis

4 pages, 7 photos

S. Tommaso
in Parione

SS. Trinità
dei Pellegrini

SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio

S. Vitale

SS. Vito e Modesto

After spending a good deal of time every couple of years or so searching the Web for the churches of Rome, I've come away very disappointed. Only about 12 of them are covered at all adequately, and (now that an excellent site on S. Passera by Christian Lemme has totally vanished from the ever-shrinking web), only one church is covered really well:

S. Maria sopra Minerva [Official Site]

So . . . one by one, I'll be entering some basic summaries:

S. Maria in Domnica • S. Maria in Trastevere • S. Stefano Rotondo

Also, in addition to the pages linked to in their proper places above, there is already a fair amount about some Roman churches in various out‑of-the‑way places on my site; so that in a first phase, even this quick index (only of relatively substantial information) may be useful:

Chapel of the Forty Martyrs (Oratorio dei Quaranta Martiri) • S. Antonio all' Esquilino (S. Andrea) • S. Cecilia in Trastevere: 1 • 2 • S. Clemente • SS. Cosma e Damiano • S. Croce a Monte Mario • S. Croce in Gerusalemme • SS. Giovanni e Paolo • S. Gregorio al Celio • S. John Lateran (S. Giovanni in Laterano): 1 • 2 • S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura • S. Maria in Aracoeli • S. Maria della Febbre • S. Maria Maggiore • SS. Nereo ed Achilleo • S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane • S. Paolo fuori le Mura • S. Peter's (S. Pietro in Vaticano): founding, architecture, & demolition of the old church in the 16c • the papal tombs • S. Petronilla • S. Prassede • S. Pudenziana • S. Stefano del Trullo • S. Urbano alla Caffarella

Finally, it's occasionally useful to check my diary. Use the search engine below. For best results, because of variants in how the texts present the churches, you should omit Saint, etc. and the connecting words. I.e., for San Lorenzo in Panisperna:

You might also put the name of the church in quotes, abbreviating Saint, San, Santa, Santo to S. and Santi, Saints, Santissimo, Santissima, etc. to SS.: