Church of Santa Maria in Monticelli

The first documentary reference to this very ancient church in the Rione Regola, a short walk from the church of San Paolo alla Regola, is under the pontificate of Paschal II, in the early 12th century. The beautiful Romanesque brick bell tower with double and triple lancet windows dates to this period. A plaque preserved inside informs us that the church was consecrated again by Innocent II in 1143, it is not known following what events. A bull by Urban IV in 1264 records it as “Sancta Maria in Monticellis Arenulae”, a designation perhaps due to its construction on a rise of land (“Monticello in Italian”) to protect it from the flooding of the Tiber. The church was preceded by a portico that has now disappeared, and had a choir that was embellished with Cosmatesque work dated by some sources to 1227.

Apart from the bell tower, which was reduced from seven to five storeys in the early 17th century for stability reasons, all that remains of the medieval church is the three-nave basilica plan and a fragment of an apse mosaic with the face of Christ. At the instigation of Clement XI, the church was in fact completely rebuilt in 1716 by Matteo Sassi. Giuseppe Sardi, one of the most interesting architects working in Rome at the beginning of the 18th century, who a few years later designed the Rococo façade of Santa Maria Maddalena, also collaborated on the new Baroque façade. In 1860 the church was again restored by Francesco Azzurri: with these works the church took on its present appearance, while retaining the original floor plan. The interior of the church, also restored in the 18th century, preserves works of considerable artistic value, including a fresco of the Flagellation attributed to Antonio Carracci (16th century) and a 14th-century wooden crucifix attributed to Pietro Cavallini.

A curiosity: the church was the first burial place of 21-year-old Goffredo Mameli, author of the words of the Hymn of Italy. Wounded during the clashes to defend the city in the last act of the short-lived Roman Republic of 1849, Mameli had been taken to the nearby hospice of the Trinità dei Pellegrini church, where he died of septicaemia on 6 July. From the church of Santa Maria in Monticelli, his body was transferred to the church of the Santissime Stimmate and then, after the Breach of Porta Pia, to the Verano monumental cemetery. His remains today rest in the Garibaldi Ossuary Mausoleum on the Janiculum Hill, where they were moved again in 1941.