Sant'Andrea della Valle - Roma, Italy - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

Sant'Andrea della Valle is one of the three great 17th century preaching churches (the others being the Gesù and the Chiesa Nuova) built by Counter-Reformation religious orders in the Centro Storico. It is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines.

Work initially started around 1590 under the designs of Giacomo della Porta and Pier Paolo Olivieri, and under the patronage of Cardinal Gesualdo. With the previous patron's death, direction of the church passed to Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto, nephew of Pope Sixtus V. Work restarted by 1608, financed by what was then an enormous endowment of over 150,000 gold scudi, and with a more grandiose plan designed mainly by Carlo Maderno. The interior of the church was completed by 1650, with some changes added by Francesco Grimaldi.

The fresco decoration of Sant'Andrea's dome was one of the largest commissions of its day. The work was disputed by two Carracci pupils, Giovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino. In 1608, Lanfranco had been chosen by Cardinal Alessandro, but the Ludovisi papacy of Pope Gregory XV favored the Bolognese Domenichino. In the end, both artists were employed, and Lanfranco's lavish dome decoration (completed 1627) set the model for such decorations for the following decades. This dome was for a long time the third largest dome in Rome, after the Basilica of St Peter and the Pantheon.

The apse decoration is by Alessandro Algardi. In the apse half-dome the History of Sant'Andrea and Virtues are frescoed by Domenichino. In the apse walls are three frescoes Crucifixion, Martyrdom and burial of Sant'Andrea by Mattia Preti (1650–1651), as commissioned by Donna Olimpia Maidalchini, sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X.

The Baroque facade was added between 1655 and 1663 by Carlo Rainaldi, at the expense of Cardinal Francesco Peretti di Montalto, nephew of Alessandro.

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Source: Wikipedia (visit link)

Date the Church was built, dedicated or cornerstone laid: 01/01/1650 Age of Church building determined by?: Other reliable source If denomination of Church is not part of the name, please provide it here: Catholic If Church is open to the public, please indicate hours: From: 7:30 AM To: 7:30 PM If Church holds a weekly worship service and "all are welcome", please give the day of the week: Sunday Indicate the time that the primary worship service is held. List only one: 11:00 AM Street address of Church: 6 Piazza Vidoni, Roma, Italy 00186 Primary website for Church or Historic Church Building: [Web Link] Secondary Website for Church or Historic Church Building: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/14/2014 Becktracker visited it