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San Nicola in Carcere
| San Nicola in Carcere | |
|---|---|
| | |
| English name: | St Nicholas in Prison |
| Dedication: | St Nicholas of Myra |
| Denomination: | Roman Catholic |
| Built: | 1128, rebuilt 1599 |
| Architect(s): | Giacomo della Porta |
| Artists: | [[]] |
| Contact data | |
| Address: | 46 Via del Teatro di Marcello / Via del Foro Olitorio 00186 Roma |
| Phone: | 06 68 30 71 98 |
San Nicola in Carcere is a church dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra, the patron saint of sailors and of children and the remote cause of the phenomenon of Santa Claus. It is a minor basilica and a titular church, and is also the regional church for those from Puglia and Lucania living in Rome. However, it is no longer a parish church. The address is Via del Teatro di Marcello 46 in the rione Ripa, just north of the Bocca del Verità. Pictures of the church at Wikimedia Commons.[1]
Contents |
History
Edit
The Three TemplesEdit
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the church is that it incorporates the remains of three temples of the Republican era (2nd century BC) which used to stand in a row, side by side in the ancient Forum Holitorium with their entrances facing east. It is difficult to determine from the extant sources which temple was dedicated to which divinity, but the consensus is as follows.
The northernmost was dedicated to Janus, and had two rows of six Ionic columns of peperino at the entrance and eight down each side. Two survive to the north, and seven to the south embedded with their architrave in the church's north wall. Well-preseved parts of the podium also survive in the crypt. The site of the middle temple is occupied by the church; it was dedicated to Juno Sospita and was in the Ionic style. Three columns survive embedded in the façade (out of six), and other remains exist in the crypt and also at the end of the left aisle. The southern, much smaller temple was dedicated to Spes (hope personified as a goddess). It was in the Doric style, with six columns at the entrance and eleven down each side. Seven columns of the north side are embedded in the south wall of the church.
There used to be a fourth temple just to the north, the Temple of Pietas built by Manius Acilius Glabrio who was consul in 191 B.C., but this was demolished for the construction of the Theatre of Marcellus.
Early historyEdit
How the three temples became a church is completely obscure. A surmise is that the middle temple was converted into a church in the 6th century, but there is no documentary evidence at all. The name carcere, meaning "prison", is also puzzling. There is a reference in Pliny which reads ...Templo Pietatis exstructo in illius carceris sede ubi nunc Marcelli theatro est ("The Temple of Piety was built on the site of the prison where the Theatre of Marcellus now is"), but if this is the same prison it requires a memory of it to have persisted for at least seven hundred years. Alternatively, one of the temples could have been used as a prison during periods of civic disorder during the early Dark Ages, such as the sacking of the city twice by barbarians in the 5th century or the Gothic Wars in the 6th. Citizens may have been imprisoned in order to extort ransoms. However, these theories again have no documentary evidence. The puzzle of the name caused people in the Middle Ages to mistake the church for the site of the Mamertine Prison.
The first certain reference is from 1128, attested by a plaque in the church (on the right as one enters) recalling its rebuilding and consecration. The inscription is not easy to read, and the Diocese has the year as 1088. The dedication to St Nicholas was perhaps as a result of the Greek population then living in the area, as the saint has always been popular in the Byzantine rite. However, he has long been popular in the West as well, and his shrine is at Bari (which is why this is the Puglian regional church).
In the 11th century the church was known as San Nicola Petrus Leonis, referring to the convert Jewish Pierleoni family who rebuilt the nearby Theatre of Marcellus as a fortress. (They became famous Roman patricians in the Middle Ages.) It was remodelled in 1599, when the present Mannerist façade was added, and restored in the 19th century on the orders of Pope Pius IX.
In the 20th century, the edifice almost succumbed to the nationalist passion for excavating and exposing the surviving architectural remains of the Roman Empire. The surrounding buildings, many of them medieval, were demolished, leaving the church isolated. When Mussolini 's grandiose Via del Mare road scheme was executed, the present wide road was pushed through at a much lower level than the original street and hence the church is now only accessible in front by steps. An engraving by Vasi shows the streetscape before all this destruction (see the "Romeartlover" external link). A further unfortunate result was that the surrounding area was depopulated (few people live around here even now), and this left the ancient parish unviable. It was suppressed in 1931, and the church made dependent on Santa Maria in Campitelli.
The current titular deacon of the church is H.E. Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski. He was appointed on 21 February 2001.
ExteriorEdit
LayoutEdit
The plan of the basilica is based on a T, with separate pitched and tiled roofs covering the nave and the longitudinal presbyterium which does not protrude beyond the nave aisle. The presbyterium roof is also hipped. There is a semi-circular apse with conch, a separate chapel on the left hand side with its own little dome and conched apse, and a medieval campanile to the right of the façade.
It is thought that the 1128 rebuilding may have provided the church with its present plan as an aisled basilica. Previously, the central temple of Juno Sospita may have been converted to a church by demolishing the cella and filling in the gaps between the pillars, creating an unaisled nave. This is what happened at Santa Maria Egiziaca. To create aisles, these walls containing the original pillars would have been removed and the sides of the neighbouring temples used for walls instead. The central temple's original lines of side pillars ran down the middles of the present aisles.
An objection to this theory is that the present arcade pillars are not a matched set, which one would expect if the pillars of the central temple were available for re-use after the walls containing them were demolished. Were the temples already in ruins, and being pillaged for building materials, when the church was first established?
FaçadeEdit
The façade incorporates three ribbed columns from the original temple of Juno Sospita, two of which have been re-done in stucco to flank the entrance portico. The third one is tucked into the left hand corner in an unrestored state, rather sad and crumbly without its capital. The work was probably designed by Giacomo della Porta for the 1599 remodelling, which he oversaw, and does not correspond to the actual dimensions of the edifice behind (the 20th century demolitions have made this more obvious). Also, it does not include the aisle ends; the left hand one is just a blank brick wall, and the right hand one is blocked by the campanile. The actual design of the façade is all very incorrect (Vitruvius would not have approved at all), but is quite impressive. There are one and a half storeys. The two main columns of the first storey are only exposed in the half-round and have been provided with swagged Ionic capitals, with the volutes unusually curly. They support a projecting dentillated cornice via a pair of odd little pilasters, which amount to fragments of architrave and frieze. Also, this cornice does not extend across the entire width of the façade.
The central vertical zone of the first storey in between the columns is brought forward slightly. The oversize door has a plain moulded doorcase, surmounted by a raised blank triangular pediment over an inscription proclaiming that the church is indulgenced. Above this pediment is a large oculus (or round window) surrounded by a ring of twelve eight-pointed stars, this ring being broken by a benefactor's inscription running underneath the cornice. This latter reads Petrus SRE Diac[onus] Card[inalis] Aldobrandinus, or "Peter Aldobrandini, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church". The oculus is flanked by a pair of panels showing reliefs of saints, the one on the left being St Nicholas and the one on the right showing two martyrs. Below each panel is a star and a swag, and there is another pair of stars to the left and right of the column capitals. The star was on the Aldobrandini coat of arms.
The little upper half-storey has four dumpy Doric pilasters supporting the crowning triangular pediment, which has a blank tympanum. The central panel has stars, swags and ribbons, there are four stars with volutes on the pilasters and a pair of candlesticks in relief in between the pairs of pilasters. Two large double volutes in shallow relief flank the pediment, and the pediment itself has three ball finials. The main one has a metal cross, while the other two have metal stars. This is an arrangement that dates from at least the 18th century.
Added by Basilwatkinsosb
The campanile to the right of the façade is medieval, and was not changed during the 16th century rebuilding. It was originally a fortified tower, but when it was abandoned it was appropriated for the church. It is rather grim square brick tower with a gabled roof and arched sound-holes; the small pair facing the road differ in size while the pair facing the city centre are much larger and taller.
InteriorEdit
The nave has seven ancient columns in the arcades on either side, and as mentioned they are not a matching set. Most are Doric, but the four nearest the presbyterium are Ionic. The flat 19th century nave ceiling is coffered in large panels, and is richly decorated in blue and gold with rosettes and tendrils. The coat of arms of Pope Pius IX is displayed. The ceiling of the transverse presbyterium is higher.
The high altar has a baldacchino, and beneath it is an antique green serpentine bath containing the relics of martyrs. (This item is often described incorrectly as of basalt, and also of "green porphyry" which sounds like a horrible colour combination. "Porphyry" means purple.) The Romans got the stone from near Sparta, so they called it Lapis lacedaemonicus. There is a U-shaped sotteraneo in front of the altar, with a marble balustrade. The apse behind the altar has frescoes from the 19th century restoration, and are of 1865.
On a fluted column near the door, you can see the 11th century dedicatory inscription.
The right hand aisle has a chapel to the Trinity, and the altarpiece, Trinity among Angels, is (perhaps wrongly) attributed to Guercino. In this aisle is a fragment of a fresco of the Madonna and Child by Antoniazzo Romano. To the right of the main altar is the chapel of Our Lady of Pompeii, and to the left is that of the Ascension. The altarpiece of the latter is by Lorenzo Costa. The large external chapel off the left hand aisle is of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and is a focus of devotion by Mexican expatriates. It contains a reproduction painted on silk of the famous miraculous painting, sent here from Mexico in 1773. The feast of Our Lady of Pompeii, an Italian cult of Our Lady based on a shrine near the famous ruined city, is celebrated on 8 May.
CryptEdit
The crypt can be visited on Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to noon. The opening times used to be much more accommodating, and it is perhaps advisable to phone beforehand to check. The phone number is on the diocesan web-page.
Remains of the podia of the three temples are on view there, together with the narrow alleyways between them. A puzzling feature is the row of small rooms or cells cut into the podium of the central temple. These may have been small booths or shops selling high-value items associated with the temple cults.
The crypt used to be an ossuary, and there were a lot of old bones scattered about until fairly recently (mostly human, some rat) which made for a rather macabre visit. Presumably they have been cleared up by now.
BibliographyEdit
For the archaelogical consensus on the identity of the temples, refer to:
Filippo Coarelli: Rome and Environs, English trans. University of California 2007, p313. This has a very good plan showing how the church relates to the remains of the temples.
External linksEdit
Roma SPQR web-page with gallery
"Romeartlover" web-page with Vasi engraving "Roma Sotteranea" web-page
