Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio - Roma, Italy - Baroque Architecture on Waymarking.com

The church construction began in 1626 on the ancient church of the Annunziata which had become too small for the influx of the students of the Collegio Romano established by Ignatius of Loyola.

The facade of the church is structured on two orders, the inferior and the superior. In the lower part there are three openings that allow access to the building; these doors are surmounted by curvilinear tympanums embellished with refined festoons; in particular the central door is underlined, flanked by two large columns with Corinthian capitals. In the upper part, aligned with the central door, there is a large window that allows light to enter the church illuminating the nave. Also in the upper part, at the ends of both sides, it is worth noting the large reverse swirls, very similar to those conceived by the genius of Leon Battista Alberti for the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

The church has the shape of a Latin cross, with an apsidal presbytery and six side chapels, three on the left and three on the right. The church is well known for its quadrature by Andrea Pozzo (1685). When looking upwards, standing in the spot marked on the ground by a golden disk placed in the floor of the nave, one can admire the perspective simulation of a second temple, superimposed on the first, the real one of the church; this simulated architecture, in perspective "from underneath", is articulated on two orders, one lower and one upper, and with a sinuous movement of columns, arches and trabeations, extends upwards where, in a light aurea, the Glory of Saint Ignatius is depicted, with Christ manifesting the banner of the cross. From the rib of Christ there is a beam of light that illuminates Ignatius, from which he in turn departs towards four allegorical figures around him that represent the four continents then known.

Also noteworthy are several other works of art: in the counter-façade there are two statues in stucco depicting the Religion and Magnificence of Alessandro Algardi, in the second chapel on the right (Sacripante chapel), designed by Nicola Michetti, the solemn altarpiece with the Transit of San Giuseppe di Francesco Trevisani, the altar of the right transept, by Andrea Pozzo, with the relief of San Luigi Gonzaga by Pierre Legros (to which corresponds, in the left transept, that of the Annunziata, by Filippo Valle). On the sides of the presbytery, on the right, there is the Ludovisi chapel with the sepulchral monument of Pope Gregory XV by Pierre Legros and four stucco statues with the Virtues, by Camillo Rusconi; in the corresponding space on the left, which gives access to the sacristy, is the colossal plaster statue of St. Ignatius, also by Rusconi and model of the one executed in marble for the Vatican basilica.

Opening hours: Weekdays 7:30 to 19:00; Sundays 9:00 to 19:00.

Source: Wikipedia (visit link)

Style: Baroque Type of building (structure): Large religious building (church, monastery, synagogue...) Date of origin:: 1626 Architect(s): Orazio Grassi, Allessandro Algardi Web site of the object (if exists): [Web Link] Address: Via del Caravita, 8a, 00186 Roma, Italy

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