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San Pietro in Montorio Review

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San Pietro in Montorio

  • Address: Piazza San Pietro in Montorio 2 (Via Garibaldi); entrance to cloister and Tempietto at portal next to church, Trastevere, Rome | Map It
  • Phone: 06/5813940

Fodor's Review:

Built by order of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in 1481 near the spot where, tradition says, St. Peter was crucified, this church is a handsome and dignified edifice. It contains a number of well-known works, including the Flagellation in the first chapel on the right, painted by the Venetian Sebastiano del Piombo from a design by Michelangelo, and St. Francis in Ecstasy, in the next-to-last chapel on the left, in which Bernini made one of his earliest experiments with concealed lighting effects.

However, the most famous work here is the circular Tempietto (Little Temple) in the monastery cloister next door. This sober little building—though tiny, holding only 10 people, it's actually a church in its own right—is one of the key Renaissance buildings in Rome. It was designed by Bramante, the original architect of the new St. Peter's Basilica, in 1502 and represents one of the earliest and most successful attempts to reproduce an entirely classical building with the lessons of ancient Greek and Roman architecture fully evident. The basic design was derived from a circular temple on the grounds of the emperor Hadrian's great villa at Tivoli outside Rome.

  • Open: Church daily 8:30-noon and 1:30-5:30. Tempietto daily 8:30-noon and 3:30-5:30
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