Church and Cloister of San Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi

The church is located in the heart of the RIone Trastevere and takes its name from the ancient hospital where Genoese sailors were received and treated, as soon as they disembarked in the nearby port of Ripa Grande. It was built by the noble Genoese banker Meliaduce Cicala, at the end of the 15th century, and almost entirely renovated in 1864.

The façade has two floors with Doric pilasters and an inscription to recall the construction; it is surmounted by a lunette with the coat of arms of Genoa and crowned by a tympanum and a bell tower.

The interior has a nave with a barrel vault, an apse and three altars. There are some valuable ancient artworks: on the right altar, the late 17th-century altarpiece depicting St. George and the dragon by Filippo Zucchetti; on the left altar, the Apparition of the Virgin of Savona, by Giovanni Odazzi; the Baptism of Christ, the main altarpiece made by the Caravaggesque painter Nicola Regnier before 1627; the precious Renaissance tabernacle of the "Holy Oils", the work of a Florentine workshop of the end of the 1400s; the funeral monument of Meliaduce Cicala, attributable to the workshop of Andrea Bregno.

The real jewel of the Church of San Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi is the extraordinary 15th-century cloister, attributed to Baccio Pontelli, the architect of Sixtus IV, and defined by Vasari as one of the most beautiful in the city.

The arched portico and architraved loggia have octagonal travertine pillars, an architectural characteristic of the time of Sixtus IV. The cloister embraces a silent "orchard-garden" suspended in time. Here, in 1588, the first palm tree of Rome was planted. Sour oranges, lemon and mandarin trees, myrtle hedges, acanthus plants, and climbing roses frame the late 15th-century travertine well standing in the centre, flanked by two Ionic columns.

In the cloister are some architectural elements of the ancient church: four 17th-century capitals, two 17th-century travertine flames and two 18th-century corbels, probably from the original facade, a medieval spiral column, a fragment of a balustrade, and a noble coat of arms.

The complex also houses the ancient Oratory of the Confraternity.  Its original structure seems to date back to the end of the 16th century.  A 17th-century frescoed arch divides the room, with a coffered ceiling decorated with coats of arms and tiny motifs. Along the walls and behind the arch are respectively depictions of stories of the Virgin and the Baptist.

Photo: Confraternita di San Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi Official Website