Santo Stefano al Monte Celio

Coordinates: 41°53′04″N 12°29′48″E / 41.88452°N 12.49676°E / 41.88452; 12.49676
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Santo Stefano Rotondo
)
Basilica of Saint Stephen in the Round on the Caelian Hill
  • Basilica di Santo Stefano al Monte Celio (
    Paleochristian
Groundbreaking5th century
Specifications
Length80 m (260 ft)
Width45 m (148 ft)
Nave width20 metres (66 ft)
Clergy
Cardinal protectorFriedrich Wetter

The Basilica of St. Stephen in the Round on the Caelian Hill (

minor basilica is also the rectory church of the Pontifical Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum
.

Since 1985, the

cardinal priest who holds the title of S. Stephano has been Friedrich Wetter
.

History

The earliest church was consecrated by

Valerius family whose estates covered large parts of the Caelian Hill. Their villa stood nearby, on the site of the present-day Hospital of San Giovanni Addolorata. Saint Melania the Elder
, a member of the family, was a frequent pilgrim to Jerusalem and died there, so the family had connections to the Holy Land.

Reconstruction of the 5th-century church

The church was originally commissioned by

Greek cross.[2]

Santo Stefano Rotondo is the oldest example of a centrally planned church in Rome.

The church was embellished by Pope John I and Pope Felix IV in the 6th century with mosaics and colored marble. It was restored in 1139–1143 by Pope Innocent II, who abandoned the outer ambulatory and three of the four side chapels. He also had three transverse arches added to support the dome,[2] enclosed the columns of the central ambulatory with brick to form the new outer wall, and walled up 14 of the windows in the drum.

In the Middle Ages, Santo Stefano Rotondo was in the charge of the

Constantine I
in the first half of the 4th century.

In 1454,

Pauline Fathers, the only Catholic Order founded by Hungarians. This is the reason why Santo Stefano Rotondo later became the unofficial church of the Hungarians in Rome. The church was restored in the 1450s by Bernardo Rossellino, probably under the guidance of Leon Battista Alberti.[3]

In 1579, the Hungarian

István Arator in 1579, was merged with the Collegium Germanicum in 1580, and became the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum,[4] because very few Hungarian students were able to travel to Rome from the Turkish-occupied, Kingdom of Hungary
.

On a visit to Rome in 1819 J. M. W. Turner made sketches of both the exterior and interior.[5]

The

Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte has been Friedrich Wetter since 1985. His predecessor, József Mindszenty
, was famous as the persecuted Catholic leader of Hungary under the Communist dictatorship.

Exterior

Santo Stefano Rotondo in a late 19th-century print

Although the inside is circular, the exterior is on a cruciform plan. The entrance has a portico with five arches on tall ancient granite columns with Corinthian capitals, added in the 12th century, by Pope Innocent II.[2]

Interior

The walls of the church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those of Niccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) and Antonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom,[5] commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century. Each painting has a titulus or inscription explaining the scene and giving the name of the emperor who ordered the execution, as well as a quotation from the Bible.

Works of art

The altar was made by the Florentine artist

Pope Gregory the Great
from around 580 AD is preserved here.

The Chapel of Ss. Primo e Feliciano has mosaics from the 7th century. One of them shows the martyrs Primus and Felician flanking a crux gemmata (jewelled cross). In 648 the chapel was built by Pope Theodore I who brought here the relics of the martyrs and buried them (together with the remains of his father).

Hungarian Chapel

Unlike nationals of other European nations, Hungarians lacked a national church in Rome after the old

St Peter's Basilica in 1778. As a compensation for the loss of the ancient church, Pope Pius VI
built a Hungarian chapel in Santo Stefano Rotondo according to the plans of Pietro Camporesi.

The 'Hungarian chapel' is dedicated to

Magyars
. The feast of St Stephen is celebrated on 20 August. Hungarian pilgrims frequently visit the chapel.

Hungarian experts took part in the ongoing restoration and archeological exploration of the church during the 20th century together with German and Italian colleagues. Notable Hungarian visitors were Vilmos Fraknói, Frigyes Riedl, and László Cs. Szabó, who all wrote about the history and importance of Santo Stefano.

Recent archeological explorations revealed the late-antique floor of the church in the chapel. The floor is composed of coloured marble slabs and was restored in 2006 by an international team led by Zsuzsanna Wierdl.

The frescoes of the chapel were painted in 1776 but older strata of paintings were recently discovered under them.

Burials

Archdeacon

Gyulafehérvár, was buried in the Santo Stefano Rotondo in 1523. Lászai left Hungary and moved to Rome where he became a papal confessor.[6]
His burial monument is an interesting example of Renaissance funeral sculpture. The inscription says: "Roma est patria omnium" (Rome is everybody's fatherland).

There is a tablet recording the burial here of the Irish king

King of Munster, who died in Rome in 1064.[7]

Mithraeum

Under the church there is a 2nd-century

Mithras
was especially popular among soldiers. The remains of Castra Peregrinorum, the barracks of the peregrini, officials detached from provincial armies for special service to the capital, were found under Santo Stefano Rotondo. The mithraeum belonged to Castra Peregrinorum but it was probably also attended by the soldiers of Cohors V Vigilum, whose barracks stood nearby on the other side of Via della Navicella.

The mithraeum is being excavated. The remains of the Roman military barracks (from the Severan Age) and the mithraeum under the church remain closed to the public.[when?] The coloured marble bas-relief "Mithras slaying the bull" from the 3rd century is today in the Museo Nazionale Romano.

List of cardinal priests of the church

The titulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte was cited for the first time in the Roman synod of 499.

See also

References

  1. OCLC 37878669
    .
  2. ^ a b c "The Church of Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio", Turismo Roma, Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department
  3. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00156129
    .
  4. ^ Aldásy, Antal. "Stephan Szántó (Arator)." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ a b Moorby, Nicola. "J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours", Tate, May 2008
  6. ^ Érszegi, Géza (2013). "A Paenitentiaria Apostolica dokumentumai „in partibus"" (PDF). In Homoki-Nagy, Mária (ed.). Ünnepi kötet Dr. Blazovich László egyetemi tanár 70. születésnapjára. Szeged: Szegedi Tudományegyetem. p. 210.
  7. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20452. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)

Further reading

External links

Media related to Santo Stefano Rotondo at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by
Santa Sofia a Via Boccea 		Landmarks of Rome
Santo Stefano al Monte Celio 		Succeeded by
Santa Teresa, Rome
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