Santa Maria in Traspontina
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Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
church in Rome
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 shrine lies on the Via della Conciliazione
Via della Conciliazione
Via della Conciliazione is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly 500 m in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constructed between 1936 and 1950, and it is the primary access route to the...
, the main road of the Rione
Rioni of Rome
A rione is an Italian term used since the Middle Ages to name the districts of Rome, according to the administrative divisions of that time. The word originates from the Latin word regio A rione (pl. rioni) is an Italian term used since the Middle Ages to name the districts of Rome, according to...
Borgo
Borgo (rione of Rome)
Borgo , is the 14th historic district of Rome, Italy. It lies on the west bank of the Tiber, and has a trapezoidal shape. Its coat of arms shows a lion , lying in front of three mounts and a star...
.
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
demolished an ancient Roman pyramid on the same site (the Meta Romuli, believed in the Middle Ages to be Romulus
Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth, although the former is sometimes said to be the sole founder...
's tomb, and portrayed on the bronze doors to St Peter's Basilica and in a Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone , better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages...
triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
in the Vatican Museums
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...
) for the construction of the first church. This church was then demolished during the pontificate of Pius IV (1559-1565) to clear the line of fire for the cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s of the Castel Sant' Angelo.
Designs by Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi
Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi
Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi was an Italian architect.Born in Siena, he was the son of architect Baldassare Peruzzi.In Rome he designed the ceremonial entrance to the Castel Sant'Angelo, and made drawings of his restoration, in section and elevation, of the Mausoleum of Hadrian as it had originally...
(with contributions by Ottaviano Nonni
Ottaviano Nonni
Ottaviano Nonni , called Il Mascherino, was an Italian architect, sculptor, and painter born in Bologna. Apprentice of Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, he was active in Emilia and in Rome, where he had been living in the rione of Borgo, in the road still bearing his name .He was the architect of the...
and Francesco Peparelli
Francesco Peparelli
Francesco Peparelli was an Italian architect. He designed the Palazzo Valentini and contributed to the design of Santa Maria in Traspontina.-Works:*Convent and monastery of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio*Hospice of San Girolamo della Carità...
) for a replacement church were in place by 1566, though the papal artillery officers insisted that its dome be as low as possible to avoid a recurrence of the previous problem. This meant that the new church's dome was built without a supporting drum.
The new church was erected along the North side of Borgo Nuovo, which was at that time the main road of Borgo.
It has four chapels to each side of the nave. The first on the right, is dedicated to Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara
Saint Barbara, , Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr....
(the patron saint of gunners). This chapel has an altarpiece of Santa Barbara (c. 1597) by Cavalier d'Arpino, with frescoed scenes (1610-20) from the life of the saint by Cesare Rossetti. The second chapel has an Ecstasy of S. Canuto
Canute IV of Denmark
Canute IV, later known as Canute the Holy or Canute the Saint , was King of Denmark from 1080 until 1086. Canute was an ambitious king who sought to strengthen the Danish monarchy, devotedly supported the Roman Catholic Church, and had designs on the English throne. Slain by rebels in 1086, he was...
(1686) by Daniele Seyter, with frescoed ceiling and lunettes by Alessandro Francesi. The fourth chapel has a Madonna & St. John Evangelist (1587) by Cesare Conti with frescoes of the Passion (1649) by Bernardino Gagliardi
Bernardino Gagliardi
Bernardino Gagliardi was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. Born in città di Castello. He was a pupil initially of Rinaldo Rinaldi in his native city, then of the painter Avanzino Nucci. He was titled a cavalieri by the Pope.In Rome, he painted the altarpiece San...
. The fifth is dedicated to S.Alberto and the frescoed stories were by Niccolò Circignani
Niccolò Circignani
Niccolò Circignani was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period.Born in Pomarance, he is one of three Italian painters called Pomarancio. His first works are documented from the 1560s, where he painted frescos on the Old Testament stories for the Vatican Belvedere, where he...
. The crossing to the right, has an Apparition of the Trinity and 3 saints (1639) by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini
Giovanni Domenico Cerrini , also called Gian Domenico Cerrini or il Cavalier Perugino, was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome and influenced in large part by painter of the Bolognese School.-Biography:...
.
The main altar (1674) was designed by Carlo Fontana
Carlo Fontana
Carlo Fontana was an Italian architect, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture.-Biography:...
, and has a medieval icon. The statues (1695) around the altar are by Alessandro Rondoni, Giacomo Antonio Lavaggi, Vincenzo Felici, and Michel Maille.
The chorus has canvases (1760) by Angelo Papi while the ceiling of the left crossing (1697) was frescoed by Biagio Puccini. The fifth chapel to the left has an altarpiece by Giovan Battista Ricci of Preaching by S.Angelo martire (1612) and stories of the saint. In the fourth chapel, a painting of the Ecstasy of S.Teresa (1698) by Antonio Gherardi
Antonio Gherardi
Antonio Gherardi was an Italian painter, architect, and sculptor of the Baroque style, active mainly in and near Rome and his native city of Rieti....
while the third has a Flagellazion of Saints Peter and Paul by Ricci, the second S.Elia with St. Anthony Abbot and the blessed Franco da Siena painted by Giacinto Calandrucci
Giacinto Calandrucci
Giacinto Calandrucci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.Originally from Palermo, he moved to Rome with the fellow Palermitaan painter and engraver Pietro del Pò. Like many painters in Rome in his day, then entered the large and prolific studio of Carlo Maratta...
.
One chapel contains the two columns to which Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
and Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
were said to have been bound prior to their martyrdom in the circus of Nero
Circus of Nero
The Circus of Nero or Circus of Caligula was a circus in ancient Rome.-Construction:It was begun by Caligula on the property of his mother Agrippina on the Ager Vaticanus , and finished by Nero...
nearby.
This is the only church in Rome whose dome does not lie on a drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
. The reason was to allow the gunners of Castel S. Angelo to exercise shooting on the Gianicolo Hill, which otherwise would had been hidden behind the dome.
The current Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria in Traspontina is Archbishop
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec
The Archdiocese of Québec is the oldest Catholic see in the New World north of Mexico. The archdiocese was founded as the Apostolic Vicariate of New France in 1658 and was elevated to a Diocese in 1674 and an Archdiocese in 1819...
Marc Ouellet.