You can see it at the end of the corridor beyond the gate. The legend quickly became popular and was translated into Greek so that St Cecilia is now venerated by the Eastern churches also. The baroque church was named after the martyr Saint Cecilia and looks rather unassuming on the outside but is beautifully decorated with artwork and carvings on the interior walls and ceilings. Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is one of the oldest titular churches in Rome. One outreach that the nuns had was to provide a venue for the newly founded Accademia di Santa Cecilia, a musical conservatory under the patronage of the saint. The Chapel of the Crucifixion has a doorway in the right hand side of the entrance vestibule, and also access through the first door on the right in the right hand aisle. According to the account, the location of the relics in the catacombs of Callistus had been forgotten but he was favoured with a dream featuring the saint who pinpointed the site for him. This painting is now considered by art critics to demonstrate a turning-point in the history of Western art. These frescoes were brought here from elsewhere, the Crucifixion apparently being on the wall of a nearby house and the Madonna from the monastery. Cecilia et socris rutilat hic flore iuventus, quae pridem in cryptis pausabant membra beata, Roma resultat ovans, semper ornata per aevum. The archaeological excavations under the church revealed much of interest, but nothing Christian that could be traced back to the period of the church's foundation, so there is no help there. These four putti were sculpted by Agostino Corsini. (This is not as obvious as might first appear, because it meant that the church was not available for worship during the demolition and rebuilding.) During the work remains of Roman edifices dating from the Republican and Imperial period were found, but some of the remains were then cleared for an expansion of the little semi-circular 9th century crypt or confessio. The original composition also covered the wall surrounding the apse, where the papal busts are now. He is flanked to the left by St Paul, St Cecilia and Pope Paschal I (with a miniature model of the church, identifying him as the builder, and a square halo showing that he was still alive when the mosaic was made). This gives you a chance to see the baptistery, and to have the excavated remains explained. To see the fresco, you must ring the doorbell to the left of the church's entrance. The famous archaeologist Antonio Bosio also left a description. Hence, some publications quote a date of around 225 for St Cecilia's martyrdom. The central nave has its own pitched and tiled roof, and the left hand aisle has its own lower roof. Unfortunately, the construction of monastery buildings destroyed the atrium. A room was inserted into the old horrea, and this had eight brick-lined cylindrical pits inserted into the floor. St Teresa of the Child Jesus, at the far end. The scrollwork is embellished with flowers and little animals, and also with little tondi containing portrait busts. On the left hand wall is another 15th century fresco showing Our Lady being venerated by SS Scholastica and George. Churches of Rome Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere; Luigi Cardinal Caetani † (1622) Cardinal-Priest of Santa Pudenziana; Ludovico Cardinal Ludovisi † (1621) Archbishop of Bologna; Archbishop Galeazzo Sanvitale † (1604) Archbishop Emeritus of Bari (-Canosa) Girolamo Cardinal Bernerio, O.P. The external entrance loggia is mediaeval, erected in the 12th century but altered by Fuga. The altar frontal is Cosmatesque in style. These are his only known painted works, as he is better known as an architect. Zanna did the putti in the vault. The wall of the apse below the mosaic is panelled in pale green veined marble framed in red marble, which is the result of a modern restoration. It was created as the funerary chapel of Cardinal Rampolla, and the monument to him here is by Enrico Quattrini of 1929. This is certainly not how she was laid out in her coffin, so (if Maderno is to be taken literally in his claim that he sculpted what he saw) those responsible for the exposition must have manipulated her remains so as to leave them in such as position. The church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is situated on the West bank of the River Tiber, to the south of the Vatican City. Opposite the chapel entrance is a tondo showing The Marriage of SS Cecilia and Valerian by Guido Reni. Pictures of the church at Wikimedia Commons are here. As a result, before the 20th century layout of the garden you could stand in the piazza and view the statue of St Cecilia under the main altar by looking across the courtyard and through the open door of the church. Here also you can buy guidebooks and postcards. The altarpiece is by Giovanni Baglione, who seriously did not get on with Caravaggio, and was painted in 1601. There was a charge. As well as the entrances to the external chapels, this aisle contains two altars along it and one at the far end. Torquato Picarelli, Basilica e casa romana di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (Roma: Romana, 1904). Also there is an enclosure doorway leading into the present nuns' choir, which has an altarpiece depicting a Crucifixion between SS Ursula and Cecilia. To either side of the vestibule is a small square ancillary room, the right hand one entered from the vestibule and the left hand one from the left hand aisle. The Cappella Rampolla almost amounts to a separate building, and is a narrow rectangle with a separate apsed presbyterium. The marble sarcophagus was found to contain a wooden coffin lined with silk and with the body in a gold-embroidered shroud, just as described in the Liber Pontificalis. Anna Maria Panzera and Mario Bagordo: La Basilica di S. Cecilia. In a nearby room there is a domestic pagan shrine consisting of a niche with a tufa relief of Minerva in front of an altar. It has four ancient Ionic columns, the inner pair of pink granite from Aswan in Egypt and the outer pair of pavonazzetto marble from what is now Iscehisar in Turkey. The relics of the saints are in urns under the main altar. The cantharus now blocks the view. Gualtiero Bassetti This would have been removed by Christian worshippers using the building. When this room was converted into a bapitistery in the 5th century, the basin was transformed into a font with a hexagonal exterior (see the mosaic in the apse) and a circular interior and was revetted with marble slabs. His successor as cardinal, Cerretti, is also commemorated here by a bas-relief which is by Carlo Quattrini of 1936. A house from the Imperial era was also found, part of which had been converted into the baptistery. This altered the appearance of the basilica much more radically than the 18th century works. This entry was posted in Rome, Things to Do in Rome and tagged art, church, trastevere. The ancient bapitstery was filled in, to raise the floor level to match that of the church. The work dates to 1767. ... during the renovation works, Cardinal Sfondrati had the tomb of Santa Cecilia opened, thus revealing the miraculously intact body, dressed in white and with wounds on her neck. To make up for the relative lack of side chapels, the aisles of this church contain several altars. Santa Maria in Trastevere Santa Cecilia San Francesco in Ripa San Crisogono Mentioned in … Bits of the bath-house remains, especially flue bricks, were then moved up into the re-ordered chapel, and the chapel subsequently presented to visiting pilgrims as the bath-house. As you go through the archway into the courtyard, you pass an ancient Roman cippus on your right, commemorating Pomerius Urbanus and dating to the year 75. The Cappella Ponzani or Ponzianica is structurally mediaeval and seems to have been added in the late 13th century. Below, there is a long inscription in gold on dark blue. There are three entrance doors, the central one being much larger than the other two. The conventual liturgy is as follows, according to the monastery website: Weekdays: Lauds 6:45, Mass 7:20, Sext 13:00, Vespers 19:15. They are, as you walk along: SS Stephen and Lawrence, deacons and martyrs. The nuns lost their freehold to the government in 1873 but, unlike those in most other Roman convents at the time, the nuns here have managed to stay put. If you have serious interest, it is worth while asking the nun on duty in the shop at the bottom of the left hand aisle -but don't expect anybody to be available to unlock gates for you on the spot. In the triangular pendentives are little wheel windows flanked by angels. See below under "Access" for details about opening times. These light the nuns' choir. The decor of the walls and ceiling is in light grey and white, with some gilded highlights. Pope Paschal I rebuilt the church in 822, and moved here the relics of St Cecilia from the Catacombs of St Calixtus. Rome2rio makes travelling from Roma Termini to Santa Cecilia in Trastevere easy. Above the apse, in the gable, is a round window which lights the void in between the nave ceiling and the roof. Hours Main church and excavations daily 9:30am–12:30pm and 4–6pm. The earliest remains are Republican, under the east side of the central nave and dating from the late 2nd century BC. There used to be a Benedictine nunnery at Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, but in 1479 Pope Sixtus IV shut it down because the sisters had become corrupt. The pope relates that he himself enshrined the relics and coffin in a marble sarcophagus under the altar of his new basilica, for which he provided an apse mosaic featuring a representation of himself. The ancient Roman structures around the crypt are difficult for the casual visitor to interpret, and even the archaeologists are not in full agreement. Since the restoration ordered in 1823 by Cardinal Giorgio Doria-Pamphilj Landi, titular priest of the church 1818-1837, these columns have been encased in squat Doric pillars. Perhaps the main attraction is Pietro Cavallini's Last Judgment fresco, often cited as the masterpiece of the artist who, with Giotto, was a prominent Late Gothic artist and a forerunner of the early Renaissance. In recent years there has been a guided tour of the underground area, on the last Saturday of the month at 10:00 (not July, August). In the apse of the crypt are the remains of an altar whose inscription indicates that it was dedicated by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) on 3 June 1080. Hence the chapel is now dedicated to her; she often came to this church to worship. Also, galleries above the arcades were enclosed to form passages to a choir above the entrance; these features were for the use of the nuns. As the nuns live in strict enclosure, the choir is not accessible to casual visitors. Note the organ being played, her attribute as patron of musicians (in mediaeval times, she was thought to have been its inventor). In front of the church is a beautiful courtyard. Highlights are Pietro Cavallini‘s frescoes and Maderno‘s statue of the saint herself. In fact, I always suggest visiting this beautiful Basilica not only for its aesthetic but also for the … These bronze pomegranates can be found elsewhere in the church. The interior of the coffin he had lined with silk fabric. The first unambiguous documentary reference, apart from the legend, is in the list of priests attending a synod u… So, try to arrive earlier rather than nearer the end. The triumphal arch of the apse is flanked by a pair of busts in large niches, over long dedicatory inscriptions. He was also responsible for the bronze angels above the main effigy. Christ wears a Roman toga in cloth-of-gold with a laticlave or wide purple stripe, the latter being a sign of high rank. Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th-century church in Rome, Italy, in the Trastevere rione, devoted to the Roman martyr Saint Cecilia. 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