The Church of Saint Bartholomew on the Island (San Bartolomeo all’Isola, in Italian), is, as the name indicates, located on the Island in the Tiber in the Ripa district of Rome.
Saint Bartholomew on the Island Church Rome
Address, opening hours and admission
Address: Piazza di San Bartolomeo all’Isola, 22 – Rome (tel. +39 06 6877973). Opening hours: Mondays till Sundays from 9,30 rill 13,30 and from 15,30 till 17,30; Sundays from 09,00 till 13,00. Admission: Free.
History and description
It was built in the 10th century by the Emperor Otto III, who had it constructed on the ruins of the Temple dedicated to Aesculapius. Inside the church, near the altar, there is a well that was most likely already there when the temple still existed.
At the time the church was dedicated to Saint Adalbert, but after a restoration ordered by Pope Paschal II (in 1113) and another one in 1180 it was re-baptized Church of Saint Bartholomew.
The Romanesque bell-tower near the church, the Torre dei Caetani, dates back to the 12th century.
In 1557 the Tiber flooded and almost completely destroyed the church and in 1625 Orazio Torriani reconstructed it, with a new baroque facade and a portico.
A final restoration took place in 1852.
Saint Bartholomew on the Island consists of three naves separated by two lines of fourteen antique columns each. The transept and apse are raised and its panelled ceiling has frescoes dating back to 1865.
In 1869 Ignazio Jacometti made the guglia (“spire” or “needle”) on the square in front of the church.
In 2000 Pope John Paul II dedicated Saint Bartholomew to the new martyrs of the 20th and 21st centuries.