Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

From Sant' Ignazio, Doug walked through Pz di Pietra past the Temple of Hadrian, an impressive collection of columns that has been incorporated into another structure as is so common in Rome, this time what is now the Chamber of Commerce. A short walk through a maze of lanes filed with small shops and restaurants brings you to Piazza della Minerva which was quite lively with street musicians and artists.

Built on the site of three pagan temples, including one dedicated to the goddess Minerva, the Dominican Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is Rome’s only Gothic church. While many other medieval churches in Rome have been given Baroque makeovers that cover Gothic structures, the Minerva is the only extant example of original Gothic architecture church building in Rome. Behind a restrained Renaissance style façade the Gothic interior features arched vaulting that was painted blue with gilded stars and trimmed with brilliant red ribbing in a 19th-century Neo-Gothic restoration.

Inside, to the right of the altar in the Cappella Carafa (also called the Cappella della Annunciazione), you’ll find some superb 15th-century frescoes by Filipino Lippi and the majestic tomb of Pope Paul IV.

Left of the high altar is one of Michelangelo’s lesser-known sculptures, Cristo Risorto (Christ Bearing the Cross; 1520), depicting Jesus carrying a cross while wearing some jarring bronze drapery. This wasn't part of the original composition and was added after the Council of Trent (1545–63) to preserve Christ's modesty.

An altarpiece of the Madonna and Child in the second chapel in the northern transept is attributed to Fra' Angelico, the Dominican friar and painter, who is also buried in the church.

The body of St Catherine of Siena, minus her head (which is in Siena), lies under the high altar, and the tombs of two Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII, are in the apse.

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