Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ROME'S TOP ART CHURCHES
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St Peter's Basilica
Michelangelo's divine
Pietà
is just one of the many masterpieces on display at the Vatic-
an's showcase basilica.
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Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli
Moses stands as the muscular centrepiece of Michelangelo's unfinished
tomb of Pope Julius II.
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Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesi
Frescoes by Domenichino are outshone by three Caravaggio canvases
depicting the life and death of St Matthew.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo
A veritable gallery with frescoes by Pinturicchio, a Raphael-designed
chapel, and two paintings by Caravaggio.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria
The church's innocuous exterior gives no clues that this is home to
Bernini's extraordinary
Santa Teresa traffita dall'amore di Dio
(Ecstasy of St Teresa).
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Chiesa di Santa Prassede
The Cappella di San Zenone features some of Rome's most brilliant Byzantine
mosaics.
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Chiesa del Gesù
Feast your eyes on the magnificent fresco
Trionfo del Nome di Gesù
(Triumph of the
Name of Jesus) at Rome's top Jesuit church.
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Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
Admire beautiful Cosmati flooring and, high up in the triumphal arch,
wonderful 5th-century mosaics.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Rome's only Gothic church boasts its own Michelangelo, a sculp-
ture of
Cristo Risorto
(Christ Bearing the Cross).
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Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Houses the
Madonna dei Pellegrini
(
Madonna di Loreto
: Madonna of the Pil-
grims)
,
one of Caravaggio's most controversial paintings, and a fresco by Raphael.
Michelangelo & the Sistine Chapel
Rome's most celebrated works of Renaissance art are Michelangelo's paintings in the
Sistine Chapel: the ceiling frescoes, painted between 1508 and 1512, and the
Giudizio
Universale
(Last Judgment), which he worked on between 1536 and 1541. Regarded as
