Sant'Atanasio a Via del Babuino

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Sant'Atanasio a Via del Babuino

English name:	St Athanasius
Dedication:	Athaniasius
Denomination:	Greek Catholic
Type:	College church
Clergy:	Greek Catholic clergy
Titular church	No
National church:	Greece
Built:	16th century

Architect(s):	Giacomo della Porta
Artists:
Contact data
Address:	149 Via del Babuino

Sant'Atanasio a Via del Babuino is the Greek national church. Its address is Via del Babuino 149.

The church and the college next to it was founded by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585). It was designed by Giacomo della Porta. The church is also known as Sant'Atanasio dei Greci.

The church is adapted to the liturgical needs of the Byzantine Rite churches; most notably, it has an iconostasis. Mass is celebrated according to the Byzantine rite, but the church is in full communion with the Roman Catholic church.

A picture of the church at Wikimedia Commons. [1]

[edit] History

The church was built by Gregory XIII for the Collegio Greco. Cardinal Giulio Santori laid the first stone on November 23, 1580, and the building was finished in 1583. It was consecrated on May 2, 1583, the feast day of Sant'Atanasio.

[edit] Exterior

Generally attributed to Giacomo della Porta; facade may have been by Martino Lunghi the Elder.

[edit] Interior

The plan is longitudinal, with a short nave. Two large rectangular chapels open to the left and right, above the lateral axis. The transept arms end in curved apses used as chapels.

The side and transept chapels have altarpieces.

The church is vaulted throughout. Paired Corinthian pilasters flank the openings in the walls.

The church was renovated in the 1870's. The altars were replaced, and a new marble floor replaced the original brick flooring.

A large picture of S. Atanasio hangs above the marble bishop's throne.

Francesco Trabaldese was responsible for the original artworks. The first chapel on the left has a frescoed Christ Among the Doctors; the right-hand chapel holds an Annunciation. These two are the only artworks of Trabaldese's to survive. Twelve tondi contained heads of the apostles, a standing Madonna and Child, a standing John the Baptist, the two Greek Doctors of the Church, and a portrait of Gregory XIII. Trabaldese was paid for these works in 1583.

The transept chapel altarpieces were painted by Giuseppe Cesari. Over the left-hand altar he painted a Crucifixion and over the right a Coronation of the Virgin. The patron of these works was Cardinal Santori, and they were likely painted around 1589.

[edit] Bibliography

Bedon, A. "Uniatismo, Aspotolato E Colonialismo Religioso Nell'età Di Gregorio XIII: La Chiesa Di S. Atanasio Di Rito Greco in Roma," Antichità Viva Firenze 1983, v.22, no.5-6, p. 49-57

"La Chiesa Di S Atanasio Dei Greci: Il Restauro Della Facciata," Bollettino d'Arte v. 76 (March/April 1991) p. 77-114

Lewine, Milton Joseph. The Roman Church Interior, 1527-1580. PhD Dissertation, Columbia University, 1960.

Sant'Atanasio dei Greci. [Roma] : Istituto di Studi Romani, 1957. (Le chiese di Roma: cenni religiosi, storici, artistici; 76)

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