other churches in Rome
 

I've been to Santa Maria Maggiore and the Vatican, but would like to see a few others on a second visit. I've read there are few around the Pantheon worth seeing, and will be using the subway rail system for transport. Santa Sabina is another I'm considering. Other recommendations welcome.
Thanks in advance

oh, there's a whole thread on all the great churches in rome. i will look for it...

Oh my. I bet if you typed in "churches in Rome" in the internet you can find a list. Hopefully dina4 can also find that thread. BTW- there most be hundreds in Rome alone.

San Pietro in Vincoli is one that springs to mind. Not only the chains that bound St. Peter but is houses the Moses sculpture by Michelangelo.

Here's something interesting. A list of churches by what century they were founded. I just read something that said there were over 900 churches in Rome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Rome

I recently visited at least five churches that are not on a first-timers tourist route; you can find the details in my trip report. I believe I left Sant Eustachio out of the report; that is just one of the many close to the Pantheon.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34931625

We really enjoyed Santa Caterina de Siena. We stumbled across it some where between the Pantheon and the Forum. It didn't look like much from the outside but the inside was beautiful.

I used the thread on Rome churches from here in October and was in celestial overload!! Don't miss San Clemente - it's a three level delight of 12th century on top of 4th century on top of a 1st century mithraeum! Too cool for words!!

Around the Pantheon, you don't want to miss San Ignacio with the faux dome, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva with the Michelangelo and St Catherine of Siena (as well as a Bernini elephant out front!!) or the Gesu (home to the Jesuits and the most incredibly overdone church imaginable! Each of these are less than 3-4 minutes walk from the Pantheon (and I'm a slow walker!!)

thanks for the replies,
I didn't think of carrying out a search prior to my question, did that and also found these two posts applicable to my question

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34577379

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=3450065

Any other suggestions welcome!

Here are three to consider. All are close to the Pantheon:

Santa Maria sopra Minerva – This is the only Medieval Gothic church in Rome. The exterior is not very impressive, but a there is a curious sculpture of an elephant carrying a small Egyptian obelisk in the piazza in front of the church. Inside you will find two works of art worth seeing: the statue of the Risen Christ by Michelangelo in the left aisle and the beautiful frescoes painted by Filippino Lippi in 1488-92 of the Life of St Thomas of Aquinas in the right transept. It was in the monastery behind the church that Galileo, was forced to recant his theory that the earth moved round the sun.

Il Gesù - This huge structure was designed by Giacomo da Vignola. It occupies the site St. Ignatius chose for his headquarters shortly after he founded the Society of Jesus in 1540. That year Pope Paul III Farnese gave the Society a small neighborhood chapel, Santa Maria della Strada (Our Lady of the Wayside), which although conveniently located, soon proved much too small for the expanding order. Ignatius' dreams for a large and appropriate church-headquarters were not realized in his lifetime. It took over 40 years, three foundation-stone ceremonies, and six architects, before Il Gesù was consecrated in 1584. Its interior drips with gold and lapis lazuli, gold and precious marbles, gold and more gold - all covered with a fantastically painted ceiling that seems to merge with the painted stucco figures at its base.

The Church of St. Ignatius – It was constructed half a century later than Il Gesù, and is entirely Baroque in style, and can be said to represent the Jesuits' triumphant phase. The mother church of the Jesuits in Rome is the grandmother of all Baroque churches. Its architecture influenced ecclesiastical building for more than a century, in Rome and throughout Europe. The church also contains some of Rome's most spectacular, jewel-encrusted altars, but its most striking element is the ceiling, covered with frescoes that swirl down from on high and merge with the painted stucco figures at their base in a three-dimensional illusion. The painted sky seems to open out, figures of saints and angels go flying outwards into space, and several colossals (infidels and heretics?) tumble downwards, desperately grappling onto the billowing clouds. The fresco shows St. Ignatius in Glory and his Apostolate in the World and has four monumental women, appropriately dressed to represent the four continents which were being converted by Jesuit missionary activity at that time. The final important characteristic of St. Ignazio is that it is a superb example of Baroque illusionism. When money ran out before a dome could be built, the clever Jesuit artist Andrea Pozzo painted a fake dome over the altar. The trompe d' oeil (fool the eye) perspective is the biggest joke in Rome (many people standing underneath never guess that the ceiling is really flat).

Here's a list of some of the churches we visited a few weeks ago:

Santa Maria Trastevere
Chiesa del Gesu
Santa Maria della Vittoria (w/ "ecstasy of St. Teresa")

For fabulous paintings by Caravaggio--the church of Santa Maria del Popolo at the northern end of Via del Corso--his Conversion of Saint Paul and Crucifixion of Saint Peter are there. Near the Piazza Navona is the church of San Luigi dei Francesi--in the Contarelli Chapel in the left side aisle of this church are three beautiful Caravaggios, including the Calling of Saint Matthew. In my opinion those two churches are worth seeing just for those wonderful paintings.

The church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, not far from Termini station, has a gorgeous Bernini sculpture, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

San Clemente is fascinating. You can descend through many levels of earlier churches and temples, ending with a Temple of Mithras - which was the first religious building on the site.

We were lucky enough to be there when someone was doing a private tour with a guide who was extremely erudite - and that was perhaps the best guided tour I've ever had in europe (we just listened in for free).

We went to these three last summer in Rome:

1. Santa Maria della Vittoria --
We went to see Bernini’s ECSTASY OF ST. TERESA. We were all on a Bernini kick, plus it was on my son’s “Angels and Demons” list. The statue is beautiful, but the church was lovely, too.

2. Santa Maria degli Angeli –
This was on our guide’s insistence. We had never heard about it. He explained that the Termini train station was named “Termini” because it was next to the “terme” or baths-- specifically, the Terme di Diocleziano, which could accommodate 3000 people at a time! From the outside, this church looks like an ancient building or part of a ruin. Michelangelo was actually commissioned to convert the interior into a church. It is just gorgeous!

3. Church of San Clemente --
We were sorry we didn’t have a guide, as everyone else seemed to have one. I consider this a must see. It was fascinating walking down through the 3 levels of history. All 4 of us loved the experience. We just read from our guidebook and got a lot out of it.

Wanted to go, but missed this one:

1. SAN PIETRO VINCOLI (St. Peter in Chains)
Best known for Michelangelo's breathtaking Moses

Thankyou once again,
I'll be printing this out and mapping locations.
cheers

Well, if you're looking for something completely different and weird, The Church of the Capuchin Monks is a place few forget.
Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini (Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception)

Thanks again,
I'll add that one to my list, looks interesting!!

Adding to the already mentioned churches:
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, by Borromini, follow Via del Quirinale to Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, this one done by Bernini, Borromini's rival. Both Baroque.
Santa Maria in Cosmedin, not for the Bocca della Verita, but for the Byzantine rite Sunday services at 10:30.
La Maddalena, continue on from the Pantheon and Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
Santa Maria in Aracoeli, piazza del Campidoglio.

Thanks again!

Here's another vote for the Santa Maria della Concezione. Those Capuchin monks had a little too much time on their hands (I loved the finger rosettes). Peace, Robyn :)>-