The Santa Maria in Portico Church is located in the Piazza Campitelli in Rome. Its cloister contains the Roman ruins of the Apollo Sosiano Temple.
Santa Maria in Portico Church Rome
Useful information
Address: Piazza di Campitelli, 9 – Roma. Phone: +39 06 68803978 or 06 6874285. District: Campitelli. Opening hours: From 07.00 till 19.00.
History and description
The Chiesa di Santa Maria in Portico in Campitelli is one of the oldest churches in Rome dedicated to Mary. It was built by Carlo Rainaldi at the site of an earlier church called Santa Maria in Campitelli.
Pope Alexander VII had ordered the church to be built to fulfill a vow made to the Roman people to the people of Rome to protect an image of the Madonna in front of which the Romans had prayed during an epidemic of the plague. The end of this epidemic, in 1656, was attributed to the intervention of the image. On Jan. 14, 1662, the statue was placed in the, then far from completed, church.
The travertine marble facade consists of two levels. The columns that are part of the facade are not directly attached to the wall. Because of the many columns of different sizes the facade seems rather “crowded”, despite the lack of ulterior decorations.
It was originally planned to place a number of statues on the façade as well, but this was eventually abandoned.
The fountain on the church square was designed by Giacomo della Porta.
Highlights
Giovanni Antonio de Rossi made the gilded tabernacle in which the image of Mary is preserved.
The cloister contains part of the foundation of the Temple of Apollo Sosiano.
The Chapel of the Relics houses a portable altar dedicated to San Gregorio Nazianzeno.