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It was constructed in the 16th century following an original design by Michelangelo Buonarroti. Other architects and artists added to the church over the following centuries. During the Kingdom of Italy, the church was used for religious state functions.
The original building of the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri was a bath house commissioned by Emperor Maximian in 297 AD and was completed in 306 AD. It is believed that Christian slaves constructed the baths using the finest materials from all over the Roman empire. Monoliths of granite from Egypt, wood from the Bavarian forests held up the vaulted ceilings and arches, and intricate mosaics decorated the walls. The baths were in use until the fall of Rome in 537 which the Aqua Marcia was destroyed, the aqueduct supplying the baths' water. The baths soon decayed into ruins as they were mined for their expensive materials which were repurposed for other buildings.
Reconstructed floorplan of the Diocletian Baths: (1) Caldarium, (2) Tepidarium, (3) Frigidarium, (4) Natatio, (5) Palaestra, (6) main entrance, (7) Exedra. The Church is built in surviving structures of 2 and 3.
Description
The transept, with Roman columns
The basilica is dedicated to the Christian martyrs, known and unknown. By a brief dated 27 July 1561, Pius IV ordered the church "built", to be dedicated to the Beatissimae Virgini et omnium Angelorum et Martyrum ("the Most Blessed Virgin of all the Angels and Martyrs"). Campaign managers to accomplish this were St. Philip Neri and St. Charles Borromeo. Impetus for this dedication had been generated by the account of a purported mystical vision experienced in 1541 at Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome of the ruins of the Baths by a Sicilian monk, Antonio del Duca, who had been lobbying for decades for papal authorization of a more formal veneration of the Angels.[1] It was also a personal monument of Pope Pius IV, whose tomb is in the apsidaltribune.
The thermae of Diocletian dominated the Viminal Hill with their ruined mass. Michelangelo Buonarroti worked from 1563 to 1564 to adapt a section of the remaining structure of the baths to enclose a church. Upon Michelangelo's death in 1564, the work was carried on by his pupil, Jacopo Del Duca. Some later construction was directed by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1749. In 1911, the Vanvitellian façade on Piazza Esedra was demolished to restore the suggestive niche of the calidarium with Roman bricks. This intervention, however, made the church less visible, and often mistaken for a ruin.[2]
Entrance to the basilica
At Santa Maria degli Angeli, Michelangelo achieved a sequence of shaped architectural spaces, developed from a Greek cross, with a dominant transept, with cubical chapels at each end, and the effect of a transverse nave. There is no true facade; the simple entrance, with its unique concave brick shape, is one of the ancient exedras of the calidarium of the thermae.[2]
The raised space of the tribune.
The great vaulted transept emphasized the scale of the Roman constructions, 90.8 meters long, and with the floor that Michelangelo raised to bring it up to the 16th century street level, 28 meters high. Raising the floor truncated the red granite Roman columns that articulate the transept and its flanking spaces. Michelangelo made the transept 27 meters wide, thus providing vast cubical spaces at each end of the transept.
The vestibule with canted corners and identical side chapels—one chapel has the tomb of Salvator Rosa, the other of Carlo Maratta—leads to a second vestibule, repeated on the far side of the transept, dominated by the over lifesize Saint Bruno of Cologne by Jean Antoine Houdon (1766). Of the Saint Bruno, Pope Clement XIV said that he would speak, were it not for the vow of silence of the order he founded. The Carthusian monks held both the Church and the monastery from 1581 to 1873. The monastery is now a museum.[1]
The Chapel of San Bruno houses the organ of Formentelli from the Millenium Jubilee. Made by the organ builder Bartolomeo Formentelli from Verona, it was a gift to Pope John Paul II from the city of Rome.[2]
Light and Time by Narcissus Quagliata.
The stained glass dome in the ceiling of the first vestibule is by Italian-American artist Narcissus Quagliata. Installed in 2001, the dome spans five meters in diameter and is located some 23 meters above the floor. Titled Light and Time, its abstract design functions as a sundial - by observing its reflection on the floor of the round vestibule, one can follow the movement of the sun across the sky.[2]
Detail of bronze doors by Igor Mitoraj.
In 2006, Polish-born sculptor Igor Mitoraj created new bronze doors as well as a statue of John the Baptist for the basilica.[1] In April 2010, a five-metre-high (16ft) bronze statue of Galileo Galilei Divine Man (designed by 1957 Nobel laureate Tsung-Dao Lee) was unveiled in a courtyard within the complex.[citation needed] The statue (a dedication to the 17th-century scientist and philosopher) was a donation from CCAST (China Center of Advanced Science and Technology) and WFS (World Federation of Scientists).
Santa Maria degli Angeli was the official state church of the Kingdom of Italy (1870–1946). More recently, national burials have been held in the church. The church hosts the tombs of General Armando Diaz and Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, who were successful commanders during World War I on the Italian front. Also today the Basilica is used for many ceremonies, including the funeral of soldiers killed abroad.
The meridian line
Diagram of Bianchini's meridian, from his De Calendario (1703): the ray on the right comes from the sun, and hits the line at solar noon through the year; the ray on the left is from Polaris
The hole in the church's wall, or oculus, from which the sun can shine through and onto the meridian line
At the beginning of the 18th century, Pope Clement XI commissioned the astronomer, mathematician, archaeologist, historian and philosopher Francesco Bianchini to build a meridian line, a sort of sundial, within the basilica. Completed in 1702, the object had a threefold purpose: the pope wanted to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformation of the calendar, to produce a tool to predict Easter exactly, and, not least, to give Rome a meridian line as important as the one Giovanni Domenico Cassini had recently built in Bologna's basilica of San Petronio, San Petronio. Alan Cook remarked, "The disposition, the stability and the precision are much better than those of the famous meridian... in Bologna".[3]
This church was chosen for several reasons: (1) Like other baths in Rome, the building was already naturally southerly oriented, so as to receive unobstructed exposure to the sun; (2) the height of the walls allowed for a long line to measure the sun's progress through the year more precisely; (3) the ancient walls had long since stopped settling into the ground, ensuring that carefully calibrated observational instruments set in them would not move out of place; and (4) because it was set in the former baths of Diocletian, it would symbolically represent a victory of the Christian calendar over the earlier pagan calendar.
Bianchini's gnomon projects the sun's image onto his line just before solar noon, around 11:54 in late October
Bianchini's sundial was built along the meridian that crosses Rome, at longitude 12° 30' E. At solar noon, which varies according to the equation of time from around 10:54a.m. UTC in late October to 11.24 a.m. UTC in February (11:54 to 12:24 CET),[4] the sun shines through a small hole in the wall to cast its light on this line each day. At the summer solstice, the sun appears highest, and its ray hits the meridian line at the point closest to the wall. At the winter solstice, the ray crosses the line at the point furthest from the wall. At either equinox, the sun touches the line between these two extremes. The longer the meridian line, the more accurately the observer can calculate the length of the year. The meridian line built here is 45 meters long and is composed of bronze, enclosed in yellow-white marble.
In addition to using the line to measure the sun's meridian crossing, Bianchini also used the window behind the pope's coat of arms and a movable telescope to observe the passage of several stars such as Arcturus and Sirius to determine their right ascensions and declinations.[5] The meridian line was restored in 2002 for the tricentenary of its construction, and it is still operational today.
Cardinal Protectors since 1687
The Church of S. Maria degli Angeli was designated a titular church for a cardinal priest on 15 May 1565 by Pope Pius IV.[6] Since 1687,[7] the following prelates have served as cardinal protector of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri:
Sigismondo Pappacoda (December 1527 – November 1536)
Francesco Bianchini was an Italian philosopher and scientist. He worked for the curia of three popes, including being camiere d'honore of Clement XI, and secretary of the commission for the reform of the calendar, working on the method to calculate the astronomically correct date for Easter in a given year.
The Baths of Diocletian were public baths in ancient Rome. Named after emperor Diocletian and built from AD 298 to 306, they were the largest of the imperial baths. The project was originally commissioned by Maximian upon his return to Rome in the autumn of 298 and was continued after his and Diocletian's abdication under Constantius, father of Constantine.
Basilica of St. Mary may refer to:
Castro Pretorio is the 18th rione of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. XVIII, and it is located within the Municipio I. The rione takes its name by the ruins of the Castrum Praetorium, the barracks of the Praetorian Guard, included in the Aurelian Walls.
The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius, who was the bishop of Bologna in the fifth century. Construction began in 1390 and its main facade has remained unfinished since. The building was transferred from the city to the diocese in 1929; the basilica was finally consecrated in 1954. It has been the seat of the relics of Bologna's patron saint only since 2000; until then they were preserved in the Santo Stefano church of Bologna.
The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Altar in Heaven is a titular basilica and conventual church of the Franciscan Convent of Aracoeli located the highest summit of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. From 1250-1798 it was the headquarters of the General Curia of the Order of Friars Minor as well as being once of the cities principal civic churches. It is still the designated church of the city council of Rome, which uses the ancient title of Senatus Populusque Romanus. The present cardinal priest of the Titulus Sanctae Mariae de Aracoeli is Salvatore De Giorgi.
There are more than 930 churches in Rome, which makes it the city with the largest number of churches in the world. Almost all of these are Catholic.
The National Roman Museum is a museum, with several branches in separate buildings throughout the city of Rome, Italy. It shows exhibits from the pre- and early history of Rome, with a focus on archaeological findings from the period of Ancient Rome.
Santa Maria degli Angeli is the name of several churches in Italy and one in Libya. They include:
Repubblica–Teatro dell'Opera is an underground station on Line A of the Rome Metro. The station was inaugurated in 1980 and takes its name from the Piazza della Repubblica underneath which it lies.
Giovanni Odazzi was an Italian painter and etcher of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome.
Charitable institutions attached to churches in Rome were founded right through the medieval period and included hospitals, hostels, and others providing assistance to pilgrims to Rome from a certain "nation", which thus became these nations' national churches in Rome. These institutions were generally organized as confraternities and funded through charity and legacies from rich benefactors belonging to that "nation". Often, they were also connected to national scholæ, where the clergymen of that nation were trained. The churches and their riches were a sign of the importance of their nation and of the prelates that supported them. Up to 1870 and Italian unification, these national churches also included churches of the Italian states.
Antonio del Duca or Lo Duca was the Sicilian friar whose persistent campaign for an official veneration of the "Seven Angelic Princes" was partly answered in the dedication of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, constructed to the orders of Pope Pius IV within the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian.
Piazza della Repubblica is a circular piazza in Rome, at the summit of the Viminal Hill, next to the Termini station. On it is to be found Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. It is served by the Repubblica – Teatro dell'Opera Metro station. From the square starts one of the main streets of Rome, Via Nazionale.
Niccolò Albergati-Ludovisi was an Italian Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Bologna.
San Ciriaco alle Terme Diocleziane was a church in the Baths of Diocletian in Rome. It was made a titulus by the Roman synod of 1 March 499.
The Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome Hotel is a five-star luxury hotel in Piazza della Repubblica, Rome situated near the Baths of Diocletian and the Michelangelo-designed Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The hotel is part of the Anantara Hotels & Resorts brand under Minor Hotels.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rome:
↑ David M. Cheyney, Catholic-Hierarchy:Santa Maria degli Angeli. (containing a complete list of the Cardinal Priests). Retrieved: 2016-03-16.
↑ For the period 1565–1592, see Guilelmus van Gulik and Conradus Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi Volumen III (Monasterii 1923), p. 65. For the period 1593–1687, see Patricius Gauchat, Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi Volumen IV (Monasterii 1935), p. 45.
Sources
Bernardi Salvetti, C. S. Maria degli Angeli alle Terme e Antonio Lo Duca (Paris: Desclée, 1965).
Matthiae, Guglielmo, S. Maria degli Angeli (Roma: Marietti, 1965).
Ackerman, James S., The Architecture of Michelangelo 2nd. ed. 1964:136-41.
De Angelis, P., Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli alle Terme diocleziane (Roma: Coop. tip. Manuzio, 1920).
Soprintendenza per i beni ambientali e architettonici del Lazio (edd.), Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri: incontro di storie (Roma: La Meridiana editori, 1991).
Serlorenzi, Mirella, and Stefania Laurenti, Terme di Diocleziano, Santa Maria degli Angeli (Roma: EDUP, 2002).
Karmon, David, "Michelangelo's "Minimalism" in the Design of Santa Maria degli Angeli", in Annali di Architettura n° 20, Vicenza 2008 on-line text
Touring Club Italiano (TCI) Roma e Dintorni 1965:317f.
Plevoets, B., & Van, C. K. (2019). Adaptive reuse of the built heritage: Concepts and cases of an emerging discipline. Taylor & Francis Group.
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