Organ - Santa Maria Maggiore - Roma, Italy
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N 41° 53.841 E 012° 29.936
33T E 292527 N 4641404
The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Basilica of Saint Mary Major) is a 5th century papal basilica located at 27 Via Liberiana in Rome, Italy. The main entrance is on the Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore.
Waymark Code: WM110YN
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 07/26/2019
Views: 1
It is now agreed that the present church was built under Celestine I (422–432) not under Pope Sixtus III (432–440), who consecrated the basilica on the 5th of August 434 to the Virgin Mary. Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the first churches built in honour of the Virgin Mary, was erected in the immediate aftermath of the Council of Ephesus of 431, which proclaimed Mary Mother of God. Pope Sixtus III built it to commemorate this decision.
The basilica was restored, redecorated and extended by various popes, including Eugene III (1145–1153), Nicholas IV (1288–92), Clement X (1670–76), and Benedict XIV (1740–58), who in the 1740s commissioned Ferdinando Fuga to build the present façade and to modify the interior. The interior of the Santa Maria Maggiore underwent a broad renovation encompassing all of its altars between the years 1575 and 1630.
The side walls of the choir each have a cantoria or corbelled-out opera box for solo musical performers. These were added by Fuga, and now contain a pair of organs.
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