Santa Maria Maggiore Rome

Santa Maria Maggiore Rome

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Santa Maria Maggiore: History and Art
A short walk from Termini Station and Via Nazionale in the heart of the Eternal City is one of the most important, beautiful and largest Rome churches, Santa Maria Maggiore. This church was built on the demand of Pope Sixtus between 432 and 440 A.D. and dedicated to the cult of the Madonna. The construction was erected on an existing church. According to tradition Pope Liberio and the patrician Giovanni dreamed of the Madonna who would have suggested them a place. This last was indicated by a miraculous snowfall on 5th August. On 5th August every year there is a celebration to remember this event wich involves petals falling from the sky.

Before 1,000  A.D. the church of Santa Maria Maggiore had a panelled ceiling. Inside there are great works such as mosaics in the triumphal arch with scenes from Christ’s childhood. The transept was added in the Middle Ages, in the XIV century during the Niccolas IV pontificate the mosaic of the apse was restored, it represents the incoronation of St. Mary, and is a work by Jacopo Torriti. The façade mosaics, a work by Filippo Rusuti, belong to the same period.

Among other works that are worthy of note, the Presepe Chapel by Arnolfo di Cambio and the Sforza Chapel designed by Michelangelo. In the XVI century Sixtus V ordered a series of frescos. The external apse is a work by Carlo Rainaldi who presented to Pope Clement IX a cheaper project than Bernini’s one. The main façade is characterized by a portico and a loggia for blessings and was built between 1741 and 1743 during the Benedict XIV pontificate and designed by Ferdinando Fuga.In 1605 Pope Paul V ordered Flaminio Ponzio to build the greek cross in the Pauline Chapel. This chapel was completed in 1611 and decorated with colored marbles, gold, and precious stones.

On the sides of the church there are the graves of popes Clement VIII, and Paul V enclosed in a triumphal arch with a central statue and bas-reliefs. Sculptures were realized by Silla da Viggiù, Bonvicino, Vasoldo, Cristoforo Stati, Nicolò Cordieri, Ippolito Buzio, Camillo Mariani, Pietro Bernini, Stefano Maderno, and Francesco Mochi. The direction of paintings was assigned to Cavalier D’Arpino. Ludovico Cigoli designed the dome, while Guido Reni was the author of the saints’ figures together with Passignano, Giovanni Baglione and Baldassare Croce. Later Lanfranco trasformed an angel into the Virgin Mary. The basilica keeps the first historical presepe composed of statues: it was ordered by Pope Niccolas IV to Arnolfo di Cambio. This Christmas tradition began in 432 when Pope Sixtus III placed in the church a Nativity cave similar to Bethlem. Many pilgrims came from the Holy Land bringing precious wooden fragments of the holy cradle which today are kept in a golden reliquary.

 
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