Church of the Santissimo Sudario dei Piemontesi

It is located in the Sant’Eustachio district, in the city centre and is the subsidiary church of the Military Ordinariate in Italy. Its origins date back to 1270 when a group of Piedmontese, Nice and Savoyards, returning from the eighth crusade, formed a small community in Rome. In 1597 the latter founded the Confraternity of the Holiest Sudarium with the aim of carrying out charitable activities for the poor.

Under the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) the Archconfraternity obtained the construction of a church dedicated to the Holiest Sudarium. The works were carried out between 1603 and 1605 on a project by the architect Carlo di Castellamonte (1560-1641). It was restored in 1678 by Carlo Rainaldi - who created the new two-tiered façade - with the help of the Piedmontese painter and architect Pier Francesco Garoli. During the revolutionary period of the Roman Republic of 1798-99, it was deconsecrated and used as a warehouse and stables. Restored in 1856, after 1870 it became a kind of private chapel of the Savoy family. Today the church is officiated by the Palatine Chaplains.

The interior has a single nave with two side chapels and is rich in fine stuccoes; the floor is made of polychrome stone material. The vault is decorated with frescoes by Cesare Maccari (1840-1919). On the main altar there is the seventeenth-century painting depicting Pietà and saints by Antonio Gherardi; on the left altar, Blessed Amedeo IX by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini. In the church there is a life-size reproduction of the Holy Sudarium, a sixteenth-century work by Maria Francesca of Savoy, donated to the church by Pope Clement VIII. In the sacristy there is the painting with Scenes from the Passion by Lazzaro Baldi.

Photo credits: courtesy of Church of the Santissimo Sudario dei Piemontesi