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Santa Maria in Trastevere Review

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Santa Maria in Trastevere

Address: Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, Trastevere, Rome | Map It
Phone: 06/5814802

Category: Religious Sites
Location: Trastevere and the Ghetto

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Fodor's Review:

Originally built sometime before the 4th century, this is certainly one of the oldest churches in the city, and one of the grandest, too. With a nave framed by a processional of two rows of gigantic columns (22 in total) taken from ancient Roman temples and an altar studded with gilded mosaics, this interior conjures up the splendor of ancient Rome better than any other in the city. Although there are larger Roman naves, none seems so majestic, as it's bathed in a sublime glow from the 12th- and 13th-century mosaics and the overhead gilding of the ceiling designed by Domenichino (1617). Supposedly the first church in Rome to have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the church was rebuilt in the 12th century by Pope Innocent II (who hailed from Trastevere), and the portico, which was added in the 19th century, seems to focus attention on the 800-year-old mosaics on the facade, which represent the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The piazza is enhanced by their aura, especially at night, when the front of the church and its bell tower are illuminated. Behind the towering medieval ciborium altar, the semicircular apse is covered with the most important mosaics, in particular the six panels of the Life of the Virgin created by Pietro Cavallini (whose new sense of realism came to inspired] the great Giotto); note the little building labeled "Taberna Meritoria" just under the figure of the Virgin in the Nativity scene, with a stream of oil flowing from it. It recalls the legend that on the day Christ was born, a stream of pure oil flowed from the earth on the site of the piazza, signifying the coming of the grace of God. Off the north side of the piazza, there's a little street called Via delle Fonte dell'Olio in honor of this miracle.