Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pietà al Colosseo

The small church is inserted in one of the fornixes of the Flavian amphitheatre; it already existed, as a sacred aedicule, at the time of Pope Paul IV (1555-1559). Armellini recounts that:

... it was originally intended as a cloakroom for the company that used to perform the great drama of the Passion of Jesus Christ in the arena of the amphitheatre, a custom that continued until the time of Paul IV.

(Cf. bibliography, op. cit., p. 523)

Later, in 1622, the aedicule was purchased by the Confraternity of the Gonfalone, who transformed it into an oratory and entrusted it to a hermit monk who lived there permanently as guardian of the place. The oratory belonged to the Gonfalone until 1936; it then changed hands and was entrusted since 1955 to the Circolo San Pietro, which still runs it today and celebrates mass there every Saturday and Sunday. Inside, on the high altar, there is a bas-relief from the 19th century depicting Our Lady of Sorrows.