History
According to a legend, it was built by Emperor Constantine after the Edict of Milan (313). The local tradition attributes the building of the church to Pope Simplicius (468-483), who was born at Tivoli. The Liber pontificalis, in the biography of Pope Leo III (795-816), contains the first reference to the "basilica beati martyris Laurentii sita infra civitatem Tyburtinam" ("basilica of the Blessed Martyr Lawrence in the town of Tivoli").
The Edict of Milan was the February AD 313 agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Mediolanum and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians following the Edict of Toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity a legal status, but did not make Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire; this took place under Emperor Theodosius I in AD 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica.
Pope Simplicius was pope from 468 to his death in 483. He was born in Tivoli, Italy, the son of a citizen named Castinus. Most of what is known of him personally is derived from the Liber Pontificalis.
Pope Leo III was Pope and ruler of the Papal States from 26 December 795 to his death in 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him Holy Roman Emperor and "Augustus of the Romans".
Whatever the exact date, the first church was built over the basilica in the forum of the Roman city of Tibur (1st century BC), whose apse can still be seen behind the one of the present building. This church was rebuilt in Romanesque style between the 11th and 12th centuries, and the bell tower belongs to this rebuilding.
The Latin word basilica has three distinct applications in modern English. Originally, the word was used to refer to an ancient Roman public building, where courts were held, as well as serving other official and public functions. It usually had the door at one end and a slightly raised platform and an apse at the other, where the magistrate or other officials were seated. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the main forum. Subsequently, the basilica was not built near a forum but adjacent to a palace and was known as a "palace basilica".
A forum was a public square in a Roman municipium, or any civitas, reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls. Many fora were constructed at remote locations along a road by the magistrate responsible for the road, in which case the forum was the only settlement at the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popili or Forum Livi.
In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, conventionally founded in 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The Roman Empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants ) and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117.
The present cathedral, in Baroque style, was built by order of Cardinal Giulio Roma, bishop of Tivoli from 1634 to 1652. It has one nave with side chapels. It was consecrated on February 1, 1641, and completed with the portico in 1650. In 1747 the side door on the north was created, while the inside decoration dates from the early 19th century.
Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to combat the Reformation and the Protestant church with a new architecture that inspired surprise and awe. It reached its peak in the High Baroque (1625-1675), when it was used in churches and palaces in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, and Austria. In the Late Baroque period (1675-1750), it reached as far as Russia and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Beginning in about 1730, an even more elaborately decorative variant called Rococo appeared and flourished in Central Europe.
Giulio Roma was an Italian Catholic Cardinal and Bishop of Recanati and Loreto.
Description
The west front of the church has a portico with three arches, and is flanked by the Romanesque bell tower, about 47 meters high. The interior was decorated by the Roman painter Angelo De Angelis in 1816: on the vault are paintings depicting The Glory of St. Lawrence, Faith and Religion, while in the apse are depicted four saints from Tivoli: Pope Simplicius and the martyrs Generosus, Symphorosa and Getulius. The altarpiece represents St Lawrence in front of the Judge, and was painted by Pietro Labruzzi.
Symphorosa is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. According to tradition, she was martyred with her seven sons at Tibur toward the end of the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Saint Getulius is venerated together with Amantius (Amancius), Cerealus (Caerealis), and Primitivus as a Christian martyr and saint. They are considered to have died at Gabii. According to tradition, Getulius was the husband of Saint Symphorosa. Getulius is a name meaning "of the Gaetuli", which was a tribe of North Africa.
Pietro Labruzzi (1739–1805) was an Italian painter of the Neoclassical period, active in Rome and Poland. He is best known for his altarpieces and portraits.
Side chapels
Four chapels open along the south side of the cathedral:
- Chapel of the Crucifix: decorated by the Tiburtine painter Raffaele Giuliani (19th century) with Scenes of the Passion of Jesus. The altar includes an oil on canvas with Our Lady of Sorrows by Guido Reni or his school
- Chapel of the Immaculate: decorated by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi. The French sculptor Christophe Veyrier, a nephew and follower of Pierre Puget, is the author of the Immaculate Conception altarpiece
- Chapel of Saint Lawrence: contains paintings by Ludovico Gimignani and Pietro Lucatelli, while the altarpiece, depicting Saint Lawrence, is by Luigi Fontana
- Chapel of the Deposition: contains the famous wooden sculpture group of the Descent from the Cross (c. 1220-1230), which includes six statues: the Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and an Angel
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicholas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but also mythological and allegorical subjects. Active in Rome, Naples, and his native Bologna, he became the dominant figure in the Bolognese School that emerged under the influence of the Carracci.
Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi was an Italian painter, draughtsman, printmaker and architect. He was an accomplished fresco painter of classical landscapes which were popular with leading Roman families.
Christophe Veyrier was a French sculptor, the nephew and follower of Pierre Puget.
Two further chapels open on the north side:
- Chapel of the Most Holy Savior: decorated by Vincenzo Manenti. Over the altar is the renowned Triptych of the Savior, a work by the Benedictine monks of Farfa Abbey (first half of the 12th century). The silver cuirass from the triptych, made by Tuscan craftsmen in 1449, is now preserved in a showcase on the left
- Chapel of the Persian Martyrs: decorated by Bartolomeo Colombo, an assistant of the famous painter and architect Pietro da Cortona. This chapel is located in the passage to the side door of the church. On the right is the funerary monument of the Tiburtine bishop Angelo Leonini, who died in 1517
Also on the north side, the sacristy was designed by architect Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1655–57), and contains frescoes by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, and oils on canvas by Innocenzo Tacconi (1575 - after 1625), with The Martyrdom of St Lawrence, and Vincenzo Manenti, with portraits of Cardinals Roma and Santacroce.
The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is a church located in the Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo district of Venice, Italy. One of the most prominent churches in the city, it has the status of a minor basilica. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, 6 at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Rinascimento.
The Basilica of Saint Praxedes, commonly known in Italian as Santa Prassede, is an ancient titular church and minor basilica located near the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major, on Via di Santa Prassede, 9/a in rione Monti of Rome, Italy. The current Cardinal Priest of Titulus Sancta Praxedis is Paul Poupard.
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The Cybo or Saint Lawrence Chapel is the second side chapel in the right-hand aisle of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. For the beauty of its paintings, the preciousness of marble revetments covering its walls and the importance of the artists involved in its construction the chapel is regarded one of the most significant sacral monuments erected in Rome in the last quarter of the 17th century.
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