In 1502, Louis XII of France began construction of the church of the Trinità dei Monti, to celebrate his successful invasion of Naples. Building work began in a French style with pointed late Gothic arches, but construction lagged. The present Italian Renaissance church was eventually built in its place and finally consecrated in 1585 by the great urbanizer Pope Sixtus V, whose via Sistina connected the Piazza della Trinità dei Monti (outside the church) to the Piazza Barberini across the city.
The most impressive part of the exterior has little to do with the church itself, which is not architecturally impressive. Rather, the location at the top of the Spanish Steps makes it stand out among the churches in Rome.
Structurally it is a nave of six bays with side aisles, but the aisles have been divided by blocking walls to form self-contained chapels. Beyond the nave is a transept, and then a sanctuary of two bays. Beyond this, mostly invisible to visitors, is the conventual choir in a rectangular apse.
The nave is under one pitched and tiled roof, and the transepts, sanctuary and choir are under a separate, slightly higher one. The fabric is in red brick, with a few architectural details in stone.
The large convent is to the north, on the left hand side. To the south, a chaplain's house abuts the church. As a result, only the façade is visible from the street.
The façade was finished in 1584 by Giacomo della Porta, and is now bright and white after a major restoration. Beforehand it was dirty and brownish, the 19th century white-on-orange render having weathered badly. It is best described as two identical campanili, with a slightly recessed central section between them. Each campanile has three storeys, the second being half the height of the first and the third being the actual bellchamber above the roofline.
The central recessed section of the façade is dominated by the single entrance, which has a molded doorcase within a propylaeum comprising two Ionic columns supporting an entablature and triangular pediment. The columns are ancient, and are of cipollino marble from Euboea in Greece. Above the entablature, the second storey of this section has an enormous arch with a double molded architrave, divided into three windows by a pair of vertical mullions.
In the first chapel to the right is a Baptism of Christ and other scenes of the life of John the Baptist by the Florentine Mannerist painter Giambattista Naldini. In the third chapel on the right is an Assumption of the Virgin by a pupil of Michelangelo, Daniele da Volterra (the last figure on the right is said to be a portrait of Michelangelo). In the fourth chapel, the Cappella Orsini, are scenes of the Passion of Christ by Paris Nogari and the funeral monument of Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi by Leonardo Sormani. In a chapel near the high altar is a canvas of the Crucifixion painted by Cesare Nebbia.
In the Cappella Pucci, on the left, are frescoes (1537) by Perino del Vaga finished by Federico and Taddeo Zuccari in 1589. The second chapel on the left has a well-known canvas of the Deposition in grisaille, by Daniele da Volterra, which imitates in trompe l'oeil a work of sculpture; flanking it are frescoes by Pablo de Céspedes and Cesare Arbasia. The first chapel on the left has frescoes by Nebbia. In the sacristy anteroom are more frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari: a Coronation of the Virgin, an Annunciation, and a Visitation.
The frescoes in the dome are by Perino del Vaga.
In a niche along a corridor that opens onto the cloister, is the fresco (reputed to be miraculous) of the Mater Admirabilis, depicting the Virgin Mary, painted by a young French girl in 1844
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 10:15 to 20:00 (Tuesday 19:00);
Friday 12:00 to 21:00; Saturday 9:15 to 21:00; Sunday 9:00 to 20:00.
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