The Roman Catholic Church of Sant’Atanasio dei Greci is the Greek national church in Rome. It is located in the historic center of the city, in Via del Babuina.
Sant’Atanasio dei Greci Church Rome
Useful information
Address: Via del Babuino, 149 Rome. Tel. 0039 06 3244903. Opening Hours: The church is open to the public only on Sunday mornings, from 10:00 to 12:00. Admission: Free of charge. (The part of the church behind the iconostasis is not to be entered by visitors).
History and Description
The church was designed by the architect Giacomo della Porta. Its construction was commissioned by Cardinal Santoro and the reason for its construction was to provide a home for the Greek Catholic clergy who had to flee from the Turks after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
Construction lasted from 1580 to 1583.
The style in which the church was built is Baroque, with a façade consisting of two sections and a floor plan in the shape of a Latin cross. The nave ends with a wooden partition.
What to see
Right chapel: Francesco Traballesi’s “Annunciation of the Lord” (1584).
Right apse: “The Annunciation of Mary” by Cavalier d’Arpino from 1590.
Left apse: Cavalier d’Arpino’s “Crucifixion,” also painted in 1590.
Left chapel: “Jesus Between the Healers” by Francesco Traballesi (1584).
Cavalier d’Arpino (1568 – 1640) was actually called Giuseppe Cesari. He was renamed Cavaliere di Cristo (“Knight of Christ”) by Pope Clement VIII, who often commissioned his paintings.