| Basilica of Saint Stephen in the Round on the Caelian Hill | |
|---|---|
 Santo Stefano Rotondo in a painting byEttore Roesler Franz in the 19th century. | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| 41°53′04″N12°29′48″E / 41.88452°N 12.49676°E /41.88452; 12.49676 | |
| Location | Via Santo Stefano Rotondo 7,Rome |
| Country | Italy |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Website | Official Website |
| History | |
| Status | Minor basilica, titular church, rectory church, national church |
| Dedication | Saint Stephen Protomartyr (also associated unofficially withKing Saint Stephen of Hungary) |
| Architecture | |
| Style | Paleochristian |
| Groundbreaking | 5th century |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 80 m (260 ft) |
| Width | 45 m (148 ft) |
| Nave width | 20 metres (66 ft) |
| Clergy | |
| Cardinal protector | Friedrich Wetter |
TheBasilica of St. Stephen in the Round on the Caelian Hill (Italian:Basilica di Santo Stefano al Monte Celio,Latin:Basilica S. Stephani in Caelio Monte) is an ancientbasilica andtitular church inRome, Italy. Commonly namedSanto Stefano Rotondo, the church isHungary's"national church" in Rome, dedicated to bothSaint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, andStephen I, the canonized firstking of Hungary. Theminor basilica is also the rectory church of the PontificalCollegium Germanicum et Hungaricum.
Since 1985, thecardinal priest who holds the title of S. Stephano has beenFriedrich Wetter.
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The earliest church was consecrated byPope Simplicius between 468 and 483. It was dedicated to theprotomartyrSaint Stephen, whose body had been discovered a few decades before in theHoly Land, and brought to Rome. The church was the first in Rome to have a circular plan. Its architecture is unique in the Late Roman world.[1] Santo Stefano was probably financed by the wealthyValerii family whose estates covered large parts of theCaelian Hill. Theirvilla stood nearby, on the site of the present-dayHospital of San Giovanni Addolorata. SaintMelania the Elder, a member of the family, was a frequent pilgrim to Jerusalem and died there, so the family had connections to the Holy Land.[2]
The church was originally commissioned byPope Leo I (440-461), with the date confirmed by ancient coins and bydendrochronology, which places the wood used in the beams of the roof to around 455 AD, but was not consecrated until after his death. The original church had three concentricambulatories flanked by 22Ionic columns, surrounding the central circular space surmounted by atambour that is 22 m (72 ft) high and 22 m wide). There were 22 windows in the tambour but most of them were walled up in the 15th-century restoration. The central ambulatory had a diameter of 42 m (138 ft), and the outer one a diameter of 66 m (217 ft). Fourside chapels extended from the middle ambulatory to the outer ambulatory, forming aGreek cross.[3]
The church was embellished byPope John I andPope Felix IV in the 6th century with mosaics and colored marble. It was restored in 1139–1143 byPope Innocent II, who abandoned the outer ambulatory and three of the four side chapels. He also had three transverse arches added to support the dome,[3] enclosed the columns of the central ambulatory with brick to form the new outer wall, and walled up 14 of the windows in the drum.
In the Middle Ages, Santo Stefano Rotondo was in the charge of theCanons Regular of the Lateran, but as time went on it fell into disrepair. In the middle of the 15th century,Flavio Biondo (Flavius Blondus) praised the marble columns, marble-covered walls, andcosmatesque works-of-art of the church, but he added that unfortunately "nowadays Santo Stefano Rotondo has no roof". Blondus claimed that the church was built on the remains of an ancient Temple ofFaunus. Excavations in 1969 to 1975 revealed that the building was not converted from a pagan temple but was always a church, erected underConstantine I in the first half of the 4th century.
In 1454,Pope Nicholas V entrusted the ruined church to thePauline Fathers, the only Catholic Order founded byHungarians. This is the reason why Santo Stefano Rotondo later became the unofficial church of the Hungarians in Rome. The church was restored in the 1450s byBernardo Rossellino, probably under the guidance ofLeon Battista Alberti.[4]
In 1579, the HungarianJesuits joined the Pauline Fathers. TheCollegium Hungaricum, established byIstván Arator in 1579, was merged with theCollegium Germanicum in 1580, and became theCollegium Germanicum et Hungaricum,[5] because very few Hungarian students were able to travel to Rome from the Turkish-occupied,Kingdom of Hungary.
On a visit to Rome in 1819J. M. W. Turner made sketches of both the exterior and interior.[6]
TheCardinal Priest of theTitulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte has been Friedrich Wetter since 1985. His predecessor,József Mindszenty, was famous as the persecuted Catholic leader of Hungary under the Communist dictatorship.
Although the inside is circular, the exterior is on a cruciform plan. The entrance has a portico with five arches on tall ancient granite columns with Corinthian capitals, added in the 12th century, byPope Innocent II.[3]
The walls of the church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those ofNiccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) andAntonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom,[6] commissioned byGregory XIII in the 16th century. Each painting has atitulus or inscription explaining the scene and giving the name of the emperor who ordered the execution, as well as a quotation from the Bible.
The altar was made by the Florentine artistBernardo Rossellino in the 15th century. The painting in the apse shows Christ between two martyrs. An ancient chair ofPope Gregory the Great from around 580 AD is preserved here.
TheChapel of Ss. Primo e Feliciano has mosaics from the 7th century. One of them shows the martyrsPrimus and Felician flanking acrux gemmata (jewelled cross). In 648 the chapel was built byPope Theodore I whobrought here the relics of the martyrs and buried them (together with the remains of his father).
Unlike nationals of other European nations, Hungarians lacked a national church in Rome after the oldSanto Stefano degli Ungheresi in theVatican was pulled down to make way for the sacristy ofSt Peter's Basilica in 1778. As a compensation for the loss of the ancient church,Pope Pius VI built a Hungarian chapel in Santo Stefano Rotondo according to the plans of Pietro Camporesi.
The 'Hungarian chapel' is dedicated toStephen I of Hungary,Szent István, the canonized first king of theMagyars. The feast of St Stephen is celebrated on 20 August. Hungarian pilgrims frequently visit the chapel.
Hungarian experts took part in the ongoing restoration and archeological exploration of the church during the 20th century together with German and Italian colleagues. Notable Hungarian visitors wereVilmos Fraknói,Frigyes Riedl, and László Cs. Szabó, who all wrote about the history and importance of Santo Stefano.
Recent archeological explorations revealed the late-antique floor of the church in the chapel. The floor is composed of coloured marble slabs and was restored in 2006 by an international team led byZsuzsanna Wierdl.
The frescoes of the chapel were painted in 1776 but older strata of paintings were recently discovered under them.
ArchdeaconJános Lászai, canon ofGyulafehérvár, was buried in the Santo Stefano Rotondo in 1523. Lászai left Hungary and moved to Rome where he became a papal confessor.[7] His burial monument is an interesting example of Renaissance funeral sculpture. The inscription says: "Roma est patria omnium" (Rome is everybody's fatherland).
There is a tablet recording the burial here of the Irish kingDonnchad mac Brian, son ofBrian Bóruma andKing of Munster, who died in Rome in 1064.[8]
Under the church there is a 2nd-centurymithraeum, related to the presence of the barracks of Roman soldiers in the neighbourhood. The cult ofMithras was especially popular among soldiers. The remains of Castra Peregrinorum, the barracks of theperegrini, officials detached from provincial armies for special service to the capital, were found under Santo Stefano Rotondo. The mithraeum belonged to Castra Peregrinorum but it was probably also attended by the soldiers of Cohors V Vigilum, whose barracks stood nearby on the other side of Via della Navicella.
The mithraeum is being excavated. The remains of the Roman military barracks (from theSeveran Age) and the mithraeum under the church remain closed to the public.[when?] The coloured marble bas-relief "Mithras slaying the bull" from the 3rd century is today in theMuseo Nazionale Romano.
ThetitulusS. Stephani in Coelio Monte was cited for the first time in the Roman synod of 499.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
Media related toSanto Stefano Rotondo at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by Santa Sofia a Via Boccea | Landmarks of Rome Santo Stefano al Monte Celio | Succeeded by Santa Teresa, Rome |
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