Santa Maria in Cosmedin is the
Oriental Rite church for Catholics of the Melkite rite. It is the second church in Rome to be
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is located at Piazza della Bocca
della Verità.
The church is one of the most
important Roman basilicas, standing as a symbol of the city itself,
and constitutes - with the adjacent
temples of Piazza Bocca della Verità : Temple of Hercules Victor ( c200 AD ), the
Temple of Portunus ( c300 AD ), the Arch
of Janus ( c 400 AD ), Arcus Argentariorum ( 204 AD ), and the Fontan dei Tritooni ( 1715 ).
History
The Basilica of S. Maria in Cosmedin
rises in the Forum Boarium.
The actual foundation of the church
is undocumented. It may be very early, of the 3rd century, but the extant
tradition mentions it as having been built by Pope Gregory the Great at the end
of the 6th century.
It was built over the remains of the
Templum Herculis Pompeiani in the Forum Boarium and of the Statio annonae, one
of the food distribution centers of ancient Rome. Remains of the pavement
survive in the crypt and behind the church.
The church was rebuilt by Pope Adrian
I in 782, and granted to Greek monks from Constantinople exiled by the
iconoclast persecutions in the Byzantine Empire.
The church was originally known as
Santa Maria in Schola Graeca (Our Lady at the Greek Confraternity). Because of its beauty, the Greek monks gave
the church the adjective Cosmedin (from Greek kosmidion), beautiful, a
reference to the rich ornamented by Pope Hadrian.
The church suffered a major
earthquake in 847. So, later in the 9th century, Pope Nicholas I
ordered a restoration which included a sacristy, a papal palace and a new chapel
dedicated to St Nicholas. These additions were destroyed when the complex was
damaged during the Sack of Rome in 1084 led by Robert Guiscard.
The subsequent restoration of 1123,
ordered by Pope Callistus II and carried out by Cardinal Alfanus, who added the
portico, red-brick Romanesque campanile and the beautiful Cosmatesque style
decorations inside, resulting in the building that we have today. The
restoration also entailed the removal of the galleries, the building of the
schola cantorum and the arcades for the aisles. The walls were covered with
frescoes, of which fragments survive.
The church was given to the
Benedictines of Monte Cassino in 1432 by Pope Eugenius IV, but in
1573 it became a secular canonry
again.
Pope Clement XI, in 1715, had the
piazza lowered it to corresponded to the level of the floor of the church, and reorganized
the entire neighborhood by rearranging the area, which had become rundown. The pontiff had the Fontana dei
Tritoni erected, a Baroque work by Carlo Bizzaccheri.
In 1718 the church was brought up to
a Baroque style, mainly expressed by a new façade and vaulted ceiling, by
Giuseppe Sardi in 1718. The Baroque additions,
however, were removed in the restoration of 1894-1899, together with the
coat-of-arms of Pope Clement XI who had sponsored Sardi's work, by the
architect Giovanni Battista Giovenale. This included restoring the ceiling and
mediaeval appearing portico and facade. Also, the side apse chapels of the
Madonna di Loreto and that of San Giovanni Battista were restored and decorated
with Romanesque style frescoes by Cesare Caroselli with the assistance of
Alessandro Palombi.
There was a restoration of the façade
and campanile in 1964, and also a further recent restoration to the sacristy
block.
Exterior
The ancient church Santa Maria in
Cosmedin rises on the east side of Piazza Bocca della Verita. The square lies in the ancient Forum Boarium,
formed by the depression among the three hills on which Rome was built (the
Palatine, the Aventine and the Capitoline).
Campanile ( 1123 )
This is one of the finest mediaeval
Romanesque campaniles in Rome. It is the earliest documented campanile in Rome,
built around the year 1123. It is unusually tall, 34.2 meters, in brick and
having nine storeys.
① Façade
The modern façade was rebuilt in 1899
in a presumed mediaeval style.
② Portico
The most famous part of the church is
found in the portico. The ⑯ Bocca della
Verità, 'Mouth of Truth', can be found at the left end. It is an ancient well-head
or drain cover of the ancient Cloaca Massima in the shape of a mask, placed
here in 1632.
Interior
③ Nave
The original 8th century church had
trabeated colonnades instead of arcades.
The nave is lighted by rows of small
arched windows below the roofline, twenty seven in all.
Cosmatesque Mosaics ( 1123 )
This church owns many floors of
cosmati style. The cosmati style is an old artistic kind which composed with
Sierpinski’s triangle which can be dated back to as old as 9th century. The
Sierpinski's triangle is used differently to made some paterns.
Counterfaçade
On either side of the entrance door
are black granite stones. They are standardized Roman weights. In pre-Christian
times, such weights were kept in the temples were they could be used to check
the weights used by merchants. When Rome became a Christian city, they were
moved to the churches.
⑦ Schola cantorum
The schola cantorum (choir) is a
precious mediaeval survival, being an enclosure for the singers of the liturgy;
there is another at San Clemente.
Side chapels
⑮ Baptistery
The first chapel on the left hand
aisle is the baptistery, which was fitted out by Cardinal Annibale Albani in
1727 and painted by Giacomo Triga.
⑭ Chapel of San Giovanni Battista de’Rossi
The second is the Chapel of San
Giovanni Battista de’Rossi, with an altarpiece of the saint on the 18th-century
altar and a bronze balustrade also from the 18th-century.
On the altar is kept the alleged
skull of St Valentine.
⑬
Chapel of the Crucifixion
The third side chapel on the left
hand aisle is of the Crucifixion, and the fittings were provided by Giovanale.
Here is a fine tabernacle in polychrome marble from 1727.
⑫ Chapel of Our Lady of
Loreto
The left hand apse chapel at the end
of the aisle is dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto. The
19th century frescoes of Caroselli an Palombi, show the Birth of Our Lady on
the left, and her death on the right. In the conch she is shown in a mandorla
holding the Christ Child, in front of the Holy House which tradition declared
was taken by angels from Nazareth to Loreto. The modern altar is a slab on a
short column, in the mediaeval style.
⑪ Chapel of St. John the Baptist
The apse chapel at the end of the
right hand aisle has the same design of windows and altar, and is dedicated to
St John the Baptist. The 19th century frescoes, also by Caroselli and Palombi,
depict scenes from his life.
⑤ Sacristy
Access to the sacristy is from the
right aisle. An 8th century mosaic fragment of the Adoration of the Magi is
displayed over the altar in the sacristy. It was originally in Chapel of the
Virgin in old St Peter's, and was executed under Pope John VII about the year
705, and transferred here in 1639. A precious survival, it is artistically
interesting in that it owes more to the original Classical style of painting
than to the Byzantine one. The picture of the altar is by Maniardi, the
laterals by Giuseppe Chiari from Genoa. The sacristy is now the church's shop.
⑥ Winter Choir
Adjoining the right aisle is the
winter choir, designed by Tommaso Mattei on the commission of
Canon Giovanni Battista Sabatini,
which was completed by 1687.
⑧ Crypt
The crypt, built by Pope Hadrian in
the 8th century. The crypt itself is a
miniature basilica with six columns, three on each side. The columns have no bases
and derivative Composite capitals with simplified acanthus leaves.
At the far end is the original altar
of Hercules. The altar, brought here by Pope Hadrian I and later dedicated by Pope
Callixtus to Saint Cyrilla,
