Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli

With the nearby basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, it is one of the two so-called twin churches that dominate Piazza del Popolo and are its symbol along with the obelisk and the fountain with lions. Immediately visible when crossing Porta del Popolo, the church is located on one of the sides of the famous Trident (the three straight roads that have their apex right on the square), between Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta.

The name and origin of the church are linked to a prodigious event that occurred, according to legend, back in 1325. Desperate because her son had fallen into the Tiber’s waves, a woman had turned in prayer to an image of Our Lady, painted on a wall along the river. When the child was rescued, it was decided to build a chapel, located at the height of today’s Ponte Margherita, to house the miraculous image, since then known as the “Madonna dei Miracoli” (Our Lady of the Miracles).

Because of the constant overflowing of the Tiber, at the end of the 16th century the image of the Madonna was moved for safety reasons to the church of San Giacomo in Augusta, where it can still be admired today, and a copy was placed in its place in the chapel. In the mid-17th century, Pope Alexander VII ordered that a new church be built in Piazza del Popolo where the copy of the miraculous image could be kept. However, the work, entrusted by Cardinal Girolamo Gastaldi to Carlo Rainaldi, was not started until 14 years after the pope’s order and 13 years after the foundation of Santa Maria di Montesanto. Completed by Carlo Fontana, the church was consecrated and opened to the public in 1681. Although from the square it looks identical to its twin on the opposite side of the Trident, there is no shortage of differences: the space available was not equal, and to solve the problem Santa Maria dei Miracoli was given an octagonal dome instead of a dodecagonal one and a circular plan instead of an elliptical one.

The church’s facade features a deep rectangular pronaos, crowned by a tympanum on which is engraved the name of Cardinal Gastaldi, the building’s patron and commissioner. The columns were originally intended for St. Peter’s bell towers, which were designed by Bernini but never built. Ten statues stand on the outer balustrade of the building: they depict saints and were executed between 1676 and 1677 by Filippo Carcani, Ercole Ferrata and others. Like the exterior, the interior was designed by Carlo Rainaldi and completed by Carlo Fontana. On the high altar, by Antonio Raggi, is a late 16th-century copy of the image of Our Lady of the Miracles: the golden crown placed on the Virgin’s head dates from 1646 and was one of the first applied to a sacred image.