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| Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs | |
|---|---|
_-_Facade.jpg) The church facade is an apse in the wall of thecaldarium of theBaths of Diocletian. | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| 41°54′11″N12°29′49″E / 41.90306°N 12.49694°E /41.90306; 12.49694 | |
| Location | Piazza della Repubblica,Rome |
| Country | Italy |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Tradition | Roman Rite |
| Religious order | Carthusian (until 1870) |
| Website | Official website |
| History | |
| Status | Minor basilica,titular church |
| Dedication | Mary, mother of Jesus,Christian martyrs |
| Architecture | |
| Architects | |
| Groundbreaking | 1562 |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 128 metres (420 ft) |
| Width | 105 metres (344 ft) |
TheBasilica of St. Mary of the Angels and of the Martyrs (Latin:Beatissimae Virginis et omnium Angelorum et Martyrum,Italian:Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri) is aCatholictitularminor basilica and formerCarthusianconventual church inRome,Italy, constructed in the ruinedfrigidarium andtepidarium of the RomanBaths of Diocletian in thePiazza della Repubblica.
It was constructed in the 16th century following an original design byMichelangelo Buonarroti. Other architects and artists added to the church over the following centuries. During theKingdom 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 EmperorMaximian 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 theAqua 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.
The basilica is dedicated to theChristian martyrs, known and unknown. By a brief dated 27 July 1561, Pius IV ordered the church "built", to be dedicated to theBeatissimae 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 atSanta 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 ofPope Pius IV, whose tomb is in theapsidaltribune.
Thethermae of Diocletian dominated theViminal 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 byLuigi 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]
At Santa Maria degli Angeli, Michelangelo achieved a sequence of shaped architectural spaces, developed from aGreek cross, with a dominanttransept, with cubical chapels at each end, and the effect of a transverse nave. There is no truefacade; the simple entrance, with its unique concave brick shape, is one of the ancient exedras of the calidarium of thethermae.[2]
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 ofSalvator Rosa, the other ofCarlo Maratta—leads to a second vestibule, repeated on the far side of the transept, dominated by the over lifesizeSaintBruno of Cologne byJean Antoine Houdon (1766). Of theSaint Bruno,Pope Clement XIV said that he would speak, were it not for the vow of silence of the order he founded. TheCarthusian 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 toPope John Paul II from the city of Rome.[2]
The stained glass dome in the ceiling of the first vestibule is by Italian-American artistNarcissus Quagliata. Installed in 2001, the dome spans five meters in diameter and is located some 23 meters above the floor. TitledLight 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]
In 2006, Polish-born sculptorIgor Mitoraj created new bronze doors as well as a statue ofJohn the Baptist for the basilica.[1] In April 2010, a three-metre-high (9.8-foot) bronze statue ofGalileo Galilei Divine Man (designed by 1957 Nobel laureateTsung-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 theKingdom of Italy (1870–1946). More recently, national burials have been held in the church. The church hosts the tombs of GeneralArmando Diaz and AdmiralPaolo Thaon di Revel, who were successful commanders duringWorld War I on the Italian front. Also today the Basilica is used for many ceremonies, including the funeral of soldiers killed abroad.
At the beginning of the 18th century,Pope Clement XI commissioned the astronomer, mathematician, archaeologist, historian and philosopherFrancesco Bianchini to build a meridian line, a sort ofsundial, within the basilica. Completed in 1702, the object had a threefold purpose: the pope wanted to check the accuracy of theGregorian reformation of the calendar, to produce a tool to predictEaster exactly, and, not least, to give Rome a meridian line as important as the oneGiovanni Domenico Cassini had recently built inBologna'sbasilica 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 ofDiocletian, it would symbolically represent a victory of the Christian calendar over the earlier pagan calendar.
Bianchini's sundial was built along the meridian that crosses Rome, at longitude 12° 30' E. Atsolar noon, which varies according to theequation of time from around 10:54 a.m.UTC in late October to 11.24 a.m. UTC in February (11:54 to 12:24CET),[4] the sun shines through a small hole in the wall to cast its light on this line each day. At the summersolstice, 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 eitherequinox, 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 ofbronze, enclosed in yellow-whitemarble.
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 asArcturus andSirius to determine theirright ascensions anddeclinations.[5] The meridian line was restored in 2002 for the tricentenary of its construction, and it is still operational today.
The Church of S. Maria degli Angeli was designated a titular church for a cardinal priest on 15 May 1565 byPope Pius IV.[6] Since 1687,[7] the following prelates have served ascardinal protector of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri:
La stella veniva osservata con un telescopio portatile posto sulla Linea.[permanent dead link]
Media related toSanta Maria degli Angeli (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons| Preceded by San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio, Rome | Landmarks of Rome Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri | Succeeded by Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto |
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