Santa Maria in Campitelli
Encyclopedia
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
The church contains a 25 cm-high icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
of the Virgin Mary dated by style and dendrochronology
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...
to the 11th century, though it had previously been claimed by tradition to have appeared miraculously in 524 at the table of Galla
Galla of Rome
-Life:Galla was the daughter of Roman patrician Symmachus the Younger, who was appointed consul in 485. Galla was also the sister-in-law of Boethius. Her father, Symmachus the Younger, was condemned to death, unjustly, by Theodoric in 525. Galla was then married but was soon widowed, just over a...
, a Roman woman who was helping the poor, and then carried in processions since 590. It was previously housed in the now-demolished Oratory of Santa Gala, sited at what is now the piazza's far end near the Porticus Octaviae
Porticus Octaviae
The Porticus Octaviae is an ancient structure in Rome.Built by Augustus in the name of his sister, Octavia Minor, at some time after 27 BC, in place of the Porticus Metelli, the porticus enclosed within its colonnaded walks the temples of Jupiter Stator and Juno Regina, next to the Theater of...
(giving the church and icon its name of "Madonna of the Portico").
The icon was believed to have saved the city from plague in 1656 (or 1658), when it was carried in procession through the streets. On account of this, the earlier church on this site was replaced by Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from 7 April 1655, until his death.- Early life :Born in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family of Chigi and a great-nephew of Pope Paul V , he was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from...
between 1659 and 1667 with the present one, designed by Carlo Rainaldi
Carlo Rainaldi
Carlo Rainaldi was an Italian architect of the Baroque period.Born in Rome, Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of 17th century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at first with his father, Girolamo Rainaldi, a late Mannerist architect in Rome. After his father's...
in the high Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
style.
The present church has a travertine façade with large columns against (but not attached to) it, thus giving it strong vertical lines. The original design included statues which were however never executed.
Interior
The interior shrine of Our Lady was created to contain the icon at the same date (to a design by the Maltese artist Melchiorre CaffàMelchiorre Caffà
Melchiorre Cafà was a sculptor from Malta. Cafà began a promising career in Baroque Rome but this was cut short by his premature death following a work accident.- Biography :...
, or by Giovanni Antonio de Rossi), with a "gloria" (an architectural use of light for dramatic effect as used in Bernini's statue of St. Peter in the Basilica of St Peter of 1666). There is a staircase behind the 'gloria' allowing a better view of the icon, open by request only.
The first chapel on the right has a St Michael by Sebastiano Conca
Sebastiano Conca
Sebastiano Conca was an Italian painter.He was born at Gaeta, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, and apprenticed in Naples under Francesco Solimena. In 1706, along with his brother Giovanni, who acted as his assistant, he settled at Rome, where for several years he worked in chalk only, to...
. The second has a Saints Anne, Joseph, and Mary by Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano was an Italian late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain....
. The angels are by Michel Maille, Francesco Cavallini, and Francesco Baratta. In the right crossing is the funerary monument of Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca (died 1863) sculpted by Ferdinando Pettrich. The main altar (of 1667), designed by Rainaldi
Carlo Rainaldi
Carlo Rainaldi was an Italian architect of the Baroque period.Born in Rome, Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of 17th century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at first with his father, Girolamo Rainaldi, a late Mannerist architect in Rome. After his father's...
, completed by Antonio De Rossi, Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.-Biography:A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants...
and Giovanni Paolo Schor, enshrines the image of Our Lady mentioned above. In the third chapel to the left, a Conversion of St Paul by Ludovico Gimignani
Ludovico Gimignani
Ludovico Gimignani was an Italian painter, active mainly in Rome, during the Baroque period.Ludovico's father, Giacinto had been one of the main pupils emerging from the loose "studio" of painters working for Pietro da Cortona and who also received patronage from his fellow Pistoia native, the...
, in the first chapel on the left, The Holy Family and Beata Ludovica Albertoni
Beata Ludovica Albertoni
The "Beata Ludovica Albertoni" is a funerary monument in the specially designed Altieri Chapel in the church of San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere, Rome, Italy....
by Lorenzo Ottoni
Lorenzo Ottoni
Lorenzo Ottoni was an Italian sculptor who was commissioned by the papacy and various noble houses of renaissance Italy.-Life:Ottoni was born in Rome in 1658 and spent the majority of his life in the city....
. At left monument to Angelo Altieri sculpted by Giuseppe Mazzuoli.
Works by Il Baciccia can be seen in the side chapels. In front of the church is a fountain by Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.-Biography:...
.
Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca is interred in the church. Since the time of the Old Pretender
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
, the church has been a centre of devotion for the conversion of England.
List of Cardinal Protectors
- Vincenzo CostagutiVincenzo CostagutiVincenzo Costaguti was an Italian Catholic Cardinal-Early life:Costaguti was born in 1612 in Rome to the Costaguti; Genoese nobility. He was the son of Prospero Costaguti and his first wife Paola Costa...
(1643-1652) - Benedetto Pamphilj (1681–1685)
- Melchior de PolignacMelchior de PolignacMelchior de Polignac was a French diplomat, Roman Catholic cardinal and neo-Latin poet.A younger son of Armand XVI, marquis de Polignac, he was born at Lavoûte-sur-Loire, Haute-Loire, Auvergne. At an early age he achieved distinction as a diplomat...
(1724) - Giacomo Lanfredini (1734–1741)
- Henry StuartHenry Benedict StuartHenry Benedict Stuart was a Roman Catholic Cardinal, as well as the fourth and final Jacobite heir to publicly claim the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Unlike his father, James Francis Edward Stuart, and brother, Charles Edward Stuart, Henry made no effort to seize the throne...
(1747–1759) - Flavio Chigi (1759–1771)
- Filippo Carandini (1787–1794)
- Charles ErskineCharles ErskineCharles Erskine was Lord Advocate, a Scottish judge, and a Member of Parliament.Charles Erskine was the third son of Sir Charles Erskine, Baronet, of Alva, by his spouse Christian, daughter of Sir James Dundas of Arniston...
(1803–1811) - Stanislao Sanseverino (1816–1825)
- Belisario Cristaldi (1828–1831)
- Adriano Fieschi (1838–1843)
- Lodovico AltieriLodovico AltieriLodovico Altieri was an Italian Cardinal and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.-Biography:Lodovico Altieri was born as the son of Paluzzo Altieri and Maria Anna di Sassonia in Rome. He was ordained on 24 March 1833. He was created a Privy chamberlainby Pope Leo XII...
(1845–1860) - Francesco Pentini (1863–1869)
- Bartolomeo Pacca, Jr. (1875–1880)
- Francesco Ricci Paracciani (1882–1891)
- Francesco SegnaFrancesco SegnaFrancesco Segna S.T.D. was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church.Francesco Segna was born in Poggio Ginolfo, Italy. He was of a noble and rich family...
(1894–1911) - Giovanni LugariGiovanni LugariGiovanni Battista Lugari was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who from the time he became a priest at nearly fifty years of age, worked in the Roman Curia.-Biography:...
(1911–1914) - Francis Aidan Gasquet, OSBOrder of Saint BenedictThe Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...
(1915–1929) - Massimo MassimiMassimo MassimiMassimo Massimi was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in the Roman Curia from 1946 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935.-Biography:...
(1935–1954) - Carlo ChiarloCarlo ChiarloCarlo Chiarlo was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as nuncio to several countries, mostly Latin American, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1958.-Biography:...
(1958–1964) - Charles JournetCharles JournetCharles Journet was a Swiss Catholic theologian and cardinal.Born in Geneva, Charles Journet studied at the seminary in Fribourg before being ordained to the priesthood on July 15, 1917. He then did pastoral work in the Diocese of Fribourg until 1924, and there taught at the seminary from 1924 to...
(1965–1975) - Corrado Bafile (1976–2005)
- Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (2006–present)