The Church of San Benedetto in Piscinula is a small church in the square of the same name in the Trastevere district in Rome. It has the smallest bell-tower in the city.
A brief history of the church of San Benedetto in Piscinula in Rome
The Chiesa di San Benedetto in Piscinula is supposed to have been built in 543 on the ruins of the “domus Aniciorum” or the “home of the Anici family”. The church is dedicated to San Benedetto da Norcia, who was a member of this family, and lived here in 470.
The wall structure and some of the capitals reveal the existence of an 8th century oratorium. After the sack of Rome by the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard in 1084, this oratorium was restored and expanded into the present church.
The name derives from the Italian word for “swimming pool” (piscina). The reason it is called that it is built on top of the remains of ancient public baths.
Several restorations took place in the course of the centuries. In 1481, the Castellani family commissioned a restoration of the roof.
In 1678, the facade was renovated. The collegio di Sant’Anselmo, a convent for Benedictines visiting Rome, was built next-door. At the same time, Don Lami attached a hospital to the building. This hospital closed when the Ospedale di S. Maria e S. Gallicano was inaugurated in 1726. Both buildings were later destroyed.
In 1825, the church was abandoned by order of Pope Leo XII. Two restorations, in 1825 and in 1844, followed. The Massimo family commissioned the architect Pietro Camporese to renovate the facade. Camporese restored the main entrance with the architrave, the semi-circular window and the tympanum. The Massimo also had a school for poor children built nextdoor.
In 1939, the church was reopened again, after a period of closure. Another restoration was ordered, this time by the Vicariate of Rome.
Between 1941 and 2002, the church was the seat of a religious community for women, called Nostra Signora del Carmelo. At the moment it is run by the Araldi del Vangelo (“Heralds of the Gospel”).
What to see in San Benedetto in Piscinula
Exterior
The church’s Romanesque bell tower is the smallest of its kind in Rome. The smaller one of the two bells, with a Gothic inscription, is the oldest one in Rome (1069). The bigger one is decorated with three crosses and dates from 1465. The square tower is made of brick covered with colored tile fragments, and is divided into two parts by means of a saw-tooth ledge.
The facade is decorated with marble fragments of various shapes and colors. A second ledge separates the floors from the attic and the slanting roof. The top of the facade is decorated with a 15th century acroterion.
Garden
There is a small hidden garden behind the apse. An orange tree, according to legend planted by San Benedetto himself, stood in this garden until the 18th century.
Interior
The church consists of three, irregular, naves, separated by reused columns. The capitals date from different time periods between the 1st and 5th century AD. The cosmatesque floor was laid in the 12th century and there are several floor tombs, mostly of priests and of members of the families that financed the various restorations. The timber roof truss ceiling was restored in 1939.
Narthex
The narthex is slightly lower than the main body of the church. On the right side, there are plaques commemorating the dedication of the church (1728) and the parish priest A, Camalda del belvedere (1657). On the left, another inscription in memory of the concession given by Pope Pius IX to grant indulgences (1851).
Two frescoes complete the decorations of the narthex. There is an 11th century “San Benedetto” (restored in 1916 and again being restored at the time of writing) and also a 14th century “Breastfeeding Madonna” by an anonymous Roman artist.
Oratorium
The small oratorium called the “Chapel of the Virgin” to the left of the narthex has vault resting on four columns with 8th century capitals. The portal is decorated with mosaics. The altar dates back to 1604 and is decorated with a a cosmatesque strip made of porphyry and a “Madonna della Misericordia” fresco. The cosmatesque floor was laid in the 12th century.
San Benedetto’s cell
Tucked in a corner in the left nave, is the narrow cell where San Benedetto used to live and pray before he went to Subiaco to found the monasteries. The inscription inside says, roughly translated: “These bricks, part of the ancient walls on which the church was built, are the only visible ruins of the Domus Aniciorum, the only witnesses of the presence, around 495 AD, of a young man of a patrician family, called Benedetto, who had moved from Norcia to Rome, as was the habit of the times, to prepare himself for a senatorial career. From here he left for Affile, the city where his first known miracle took place. He then reached Subiaco, where the sublime contemplative adventure of the Benedictine family began, becoming thus, for posterity, the Saint and Glorious Patriarch of western monasticism”.
Left nave
Thee are two altars in the left nave, dedicated to Sant’Anselmo and to Santa Rita da Cascia. The latter contains a modern polychrome statue.
Right nave
The right nave only has one altar, decorated with an “Enthroned Madonna between San Lorenzo Martire and San Benedetto”, painted in the 19th century by Leopoldo Ansiglioni.
Apse
The main altar is decorated with an oil on wood “San Benedetto” (13th/14th century). The central “Madonna and Child” fresco dates from the 13th century, and is flanked by “San Biagio” and “San Nicola” (both 16th century).
The funeral monument of the abbot G. De Pretis (1691) and of A.N. Piervenanzi (1730) in the corners are flanked by medieval frescoes, including a “Madonna and Child with Sant’Anna” on the right.
Address, opening hours and admission
Address: Piazza In Piscinula, 40 – Rome (tel. +39 06 58331609). Opening hours: Normally the hours are from 08.30 till 12.00 and from 16.30 till 19.30 on weekdays and from 10.00 till 12.00 and from 16.30 till 19.30 on Sundays and holidays. In reality, the church is only rarely open.
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