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San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi

English name:	St Julian of the Flemish

Dedication:	Julian the Hospitaller
Denomination:	Roman Catholic
Type:	National church




Built:



Contact data
Address:	40 Via del Sudario 00186 Roma
Phone:	06.687.25.50
Fax:	06.687.38.54

Homepage:	http://www.sangiuliano.org/

San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi is the Belgian national church, dedicated to St Julian the Hospitaller. It is at Via del Sudario 40, a minor street to the east of the Largo Torre Argentina which also contains Santissimo Sudario di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo. Pictures of the church at Wikimedia Commons. [1]

It is also a titular church, and the present cardinal is Walter Brandmuller.

HistoryEdit

According to tradition, the church was founded when Flanders converted to the Christian faith, during the pontificate of Gregory II (715–753). It seems to have been there at the end of the 11th century, when Flemish crusaders stayed at a hospice for Flemish expatriates and pilgrims in the city (in the early Middle Ages, Flanders or the Low Country was approximately the area now occupied by the Netherlands and Belgium, although there was also a County of Flanders which was a political unit and not the same thing). However, the first documentary proof dates from 1444 when a charter was issued for the hospice. At that time, the Low Countries were under the rule of the Duchy of Burgundy. When that was divided between France and Spain in 1477, Spain took control and ruled the area as the Spainish Netherlands until half of it declared independence as the Netherlands we know in 1568. Since that time, the church has been for the people of the remainder of the Low Countries, which was Spanish until it became part of Austria in 1713. During this latter period, the church was rebuilt in 1675 and the hospice extended with Spanish money. However, the latter was suppressed during the French occupation and not re-founded, because the Austrian Netherlands was annexed to the Calvinist Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. The Catholic natives hated that, so they finally declared independence as Belgium in 1830. Then the church was re-named San Giuliano dei Belgi, but the historical title was restored in 1975. The church is for both Walloon and Flemish Belgians, despite its name.

ExteriorEdit

The little church is inserted into a larger building, with a frontage painted in a pinkish orange and architectural details in

white. It does not have its own roof. The ornate Baroque entrance is flanked by four windows, a pair of circular ones over a pair of rectangular ones. The doorcase has pilasters topped by swags and lions' masks inside curlicues, and on the lintel is a carving of the lion rampant from the shield of the County of Flanders. To either side is a pilaster without a capital, beyond a panel painted in orange, and these and the lintel support an entablature. Above this is an large arched niche with frame, containing a 17th century statue of St Julian the Hospitaller. At the bottom corners of this niche is a pair of Baroque curlicues ending in volutes, looking a little like two cobra hoods facing each other. On top is a triangular pediment, supported by a pair of pilasters which continue the ones flanking the doorway but which have plinths and capitals in the Doric style.

InteriorEdit

The decoration of the interior is mostly 18th century. Known artists are Dirk Helmbreker, Mattieu Kessels and William Kent. The last-named is unusual, as he was an English landscape gardener who here painted an Apotheosis of St Julian. It is in a medallion in the false saucer dome of the ceiling.