Chiesa di Santa Maria del Buon Aiuto nell'Anfiteatro Castrense

The Church of Santa Maria del Buon Aiuto is an oratory in Rome, in the Esquiline district, in Piazza Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, adjacent to the Aurelian Walls and the Amphitheatre Castrense. It depends on the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

It was erected by Pope Sixtus IV in 1476 as the inscription above the entrance door states: Sixtus IV fundavit MCCCCLXXVI.

The little church venerates an ancient image of Mary painted in fresco, which originally stood in a shrine at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Tradition has it that Sixtus IV one day found refuge from a furious thunderstorm under this shrine and invoked the help of the Virgin Mary: having escaped danger, he ordered the image to be removed from there and a church to be built under the title of Good Help (or Relief).

The oratory has very simple forms: the façade has a door with a travertine lintel and a window, covered by a gabled roof and surmounted by a small bell tower.

The interior has a rectangular plan with a cross-vaulted ceiling rising from polygonal half-pillars bearing Corinthian capitals; on the altar is a fresco of the Virgin and Child, dated 1476, attributed to Antoniazzo Romano, originally in the aedicule where the pope had taken refuge during a storm. On the same area stood the ancient church of S. Maria de Oblationario, so-called because it was maintained by the oblations of the faithful and also known by the name of S. Maria de Spazolaria or Spezzellaria, as every evening the custodian would collect and sweep up the offerings that were left on the church floor; it was demolished by Sixtus IV to make way for S. Maria del Buon Aiuto. The present building was restored in 1836 and 1880; its care is entrusted to the Confraternity of S. Maria del Buon Aiuto, formerly dependent on the Cistercians of Santa Croce.