Sant'Agnese in Agone - Roma, Italy
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denben
N 41° 53.931 E 012° 28.367
33T E 290363 N 4641634
Sant'Agnese in Agone (also called Sant'Agnese in Piazza Navona) is a famous 17th-century Baroque church in Rome, Italy.
Waymark Code: WM10NN9
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 06/03/2019
Views: 3
The church faces Piazza Navona, one of the main urban spaces in the historic centre of the city and the site where the Early Christian Saint Agnes was martyred in the ancient Stadium of Domitian.
Construction began in 1652 under the architects Girolamo Rainaldi and his son Carlo Rainaldi. After numerous quarrels, the other main architect involved was Francesco Borromini.
The plan of the church is quite complex, and involves an octagon superimposed on a Greek cross itself superimposed on a square. The sides of the square line up with the inner corners of the bell towers, which are part of the unified design of the façade which is tacked onto the near arm of the Greek cross.
The façade has three separate but unified design elements: The central coved frontage (which is the actual façade of the church), and the pair of identical bell towers which front side rooms. All elements are of the same white travertine limestone.
The campanili have three storeys. The first has two pairs of conjoined Corinthian pilasters supporting an entablature which is a continuation of that of the central frontage. They enclose two large windows, a rectangular one with a triangular pediment and balustraded balcony over a round-headed one which looks as if it was originally intended as a doorway.
Each of the bell towers has a clock: this occurs also at S. Pietro and SS. Trinità dei Monti. The clocks indicated different hours: the Italian one and the European one (Tempo Ultramontano - beyond the Alps).
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