Rome:Churches

 With the Tiger's Catholic heritage and my parents' love of old houses breeding my own love of the old and extravagant, we are going in for a fair bit of church tourism on this trip. I selected these four out of our guidebook, and was not disappointed. I'm going to try to keep them short and sweet and organise them in ascending order of which I liked best.

Santa Maria del Popolo

Situated … this church houses a fabulous collection of artworks, including several Caravaggios, which are kept safe from the camera's flash. I'll admit, what drew me here initially was the picture of a funerary monument which contained an actual skeleton, but we think that must have been behind the restoration curtains. We looked everywhere else! However, there were plenty of other monuments, canvases and slightly morbid relics to look at, so it was definitely not a disappointment. There were also skulls. Lots of skulls. Crafted and positioned below people's memorials. This is one of many things to go on my list of things to read up on.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva

This establishment is near the Pantheon, and like the Pantheon is a re-purposing job. The difference with this one is that the church was built on top of (sopra) the Roman shrine to Minerva, goddess of wisdom. There are still little nods to her around the place, including an owl sat on a shield behind a relief of a saint.

This church contains "yellow-stars-on-blue-sky", something you'll hear more about when I finally write up Luxor! These are gold stars on lapis lazuli paint, and are still stunning. There are also lots more skulls and angels, but what this church is famous for is Michelango's Christ. He is standing on the left of the altar, holding up his cross with ease and looking pretty chilled. He did cause a stir, however, by being totally naked. Thus the Good Lord now sports a specially commissioned, miraculously positioned bronze loin-cloth. Ah well, we'll just have to make do with all the naked cherubim instead...

The Pantheon

A converted Roman temple, which has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. It is a miracle of ancient design, down to the hole in the roof for light to come in and the alcoves which now contain Christian saints and martyrs.

Raphael is also resting here. You can't see the man personally, but he has a lovely stone sarcophagus. And he is in there. They checked in the nineteenth century.

This is almost permanently busy - we ended up in the Piazza del Rotonda a few times on our wanders, and it was always full - and the security do try to keep it quiet, but it the crowd tends to cycle, and you can take your time to look at everything.

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

This one's way away up in the Quirinale, on Via XXIV Maggio. I chose this one as it was designed by Bernini's rival, B-. Here he had to do a great deal with a small space, and he did, using decorated archways to give an impression of space where there really isn't any. It's probably the smallest church I've ever seen, but the roof employs a very sophisticated trick to gather as much light as possible into the white-washed main space, leaving you without the close shadows of many churches nor the sense of enclosure that such a small space should produce. It's very impressive.

A strange and beautiful ex-fountain resides in a room around to the right, but I wasn't able to find out what it actually was. There is also a crypt below, but all its icons and decorations had been removed and it was white-washed beyond creepy.

However, the show here is somewhat stolen by the Blessed -, who appears to have been sainted for being constantly patient with her drunken, abusive husband. There are relics of her belongings and locks of her hair and testimonials for her pious and caring behaviour, and the red and blue cross of the Trinitarian Order all over the church. Yes, reading this tale of archaic maltreatment made me cross - it seems like such an obvious way to control people, to make examples out of the few who put up with shit all their lives and don't rock the boat (she was also a wonderful person, don't get me wrong) - but in another sense, it is good to know that even the good people are remembered. Still, her life was so relentlessly awful that it actually seems tongue-in-cheek in translation. It's like the Church regards being reduced to poverty as a virtue. The Tiger informs me that it more or less does.

Don't forget to check out the four fountains on the corners of the street as you arrive/leave; as well as the elegant anthropomorphic statues - there are several animals to be spotted around them, all significant to Rome. And of course, you can fill your water bottle.

Santa Maria Della Vittoria

Henceforth to be known as the Church of the Morbid Curiosity. This church, also in the Quirinale, was amazing. We entered through a side door due to restoration work which closed off the main entrance. As you enter the main part of the church through this side-entrance, to the left you see a simulacrum of St. Vitorria. The poor woman was stabbed in the throat and is currently on her side, writhing towards visitors, hands raised, eyelids and lips slightly parted. However, all we get to explain this is "St. Vittoria, virgin and martyr". There is a large, stone, male saint above her who gets more word count.

Even more diverting than this, however, is "The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa" by, you guessed it, Bernini. This is where it begins, dear readers, the gaping fascination that was to become pure admiration for the sculptor.

The larger-than-life statue shows Saint Theresa about to be stabbed through the heart by the golden arrow of the triumphant angel. According to the information we are given, this pleasurable stabbing happened several times in Theresa's life, and eventually happened in front of people. In her rapture, she saw an angel, probably Seraphim, become corporeal and then stab her in the heart several times with his golden arrow.

The expressions are wonderful; the angel smiles with a smile that says "this is for your own good." And as for Theresa, well...

As with the Berninis discussed earlier, it is full of life and expression, although not entirely pleasant for all its artistic mastery. Anyway, I think I've made my feelings clear.

There are five other shrines in the church, a ceiling full of frescoes and angels and a golden alter not too dissimilar to that of the Vatican, too, so you can distract yourself for quite some time if that's your sort of thing!

There are many, many other churches in Rome, so if you like your churches to be dramatic Catholic materpieces, get in there. If not, please still go and see St Maria della Vittoria. The Quirinale is well worth a walk for its many fountains and piazzas, so take the time while you're up there to see this sublime, ridiculous entity.