We went to Rome over New Year's, and so there will be plenty of posts presenting popular and peculiar places in the Eternal City. Since it's Sunday, we'll start with a church that you probably haven't heard of...we visited just because it was there and looked nice!
The
church of Santa Maria di Loreto is a sixteenth-century church just across from Trajan's Column in Rome. After the jubilee year in 1500, the local metallurgical guild received permission to build a church on the site, replacing a chapel that had a copy of the icon of the Virgin at
Loreto. The copy remains in the church today.
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| The door lintel |
The interior of the church is a small octagon with a nice dome above.
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| Nave |
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| Dome (click to enlarge) |
The church has some fine statues featuring some early women martyrs like
Saint Agnes and
Saint Cecilia. These statues flank the main altar.
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| Main altar (with a slightly tacky Baby Jesus) |
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| Early martyrs |
Even more striking to me was a recessed crucifix on one of the side altars. No particular mention was made for why the cross was set up that way.
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| Recessed crucifix |
Another side altar had a nice blend of statues and mosaics with tricky lighting.
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| A side altar |
Since we visited around the New Year celebrations, they naturally had some Nativity scenes set up inside the church.
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| First nativity |
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| Second, larger nativity |
Sadly, my picture of the Madonna of Loreto did not come out well so you'll have to go to Rome to see it for yourself!
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