Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri - Roma, Italy - Domes of the (Under) World on Waymarking.com

The thermae of Diocletian, built in 306, dominated the Viminal Hill with their ruined mass. Michelangelo Buonarroti worked from 1563 to 1564 to adapt a section of the remaining structure of the baths to enclose a church. He achieved a sequence of shaped architectural spaces, developed from a Greek cross, with a dominant transept, with cubical chapels at each end, and the effect of a transverse nave.

There is no true facade; the simple entrance is set within one of the coved apses of a main space of the thermae. The vestibule with canted corners and identical side chapels—one chapel has the tomb of Salvator Rosa, the other of Carlo Maratta—leads to a second vestibule, repeated on the far side of the transept, dominated by the over lifesize Saint Bruno of Cologne by Jean Antoine Houdon (1766).

The dome is coffered with rosettes, and its oculus contains an important modern piece of stained glass entitled Light and Time by Narcissus Quagliata and inaugurated in 1999. Both Michelangelo and Vanvitelli had installed lanterns for the dome, but both failed structurally and the 20th century skylight that replaced it also let in the rain. The present work has the shape of a segment of a sphere about 3 metres across, and has a sunburst motif in white, black, yellow and several shades of blue. The design is divided into eight sectors by black radii, and these radiate from a central yellow disc representing the sun through a white zone to an outer blue zone. The glasswork contains three prismatic lenses designed by the Mexican astronomer Salvador Cuervas, and these focus an image of the sun on the floor below on the days of the equinoxes (together) and the two solstices. The glass cupola is not attached to the ancient roof fabric, but rests on three gilded steel spheres and thus leaves a narrow gap all round for ventilation.

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Hours Open: Daily 7:30 to 18:30 (19:00 on Sundays and Solemnities) Address: Piazza della Repubblica, Roma, Italy, 00185

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Date Logged Log   05/27/2023 GURUGU visited it