Chiesa di Santa Prisca

The last data on the church dedicated to Santa Prisca (who became martyr under Emperor Claudius) date back to C. V. The church was later restored by Adriano I in 772.In 1804, upon the plundering and damages by the Normans, the church was restored again under the papacy of Pasquale II and under Callisto III in 1446, then being entrusted to the Domenicani until 1600. Since 1935 the church is officiated by the Padri Agostiniani. The facade has a single order, reconstructed by Carlo Lombardi during C. XVII, and presents a little central portal amidst two couples of portal strips and surmounted by a framed oculus. The interior presents a plan with three naves delimited by two rows of seven Ionian columns, which are embodied into seventeenth-century pilasters. To the right is the baptismal tub where, according to tradition, San Pietro baptized Santa Prisca. The excavations that began in 1934 have led to the retrieval of a Roman house from C. I, probably where Aquila and Priscilla, parents to the Saint, used to live, and a Mithraeum dating back to C.II. The church’s crypt (C.IX - X) houses the relics of Santa Prisca.