The remains of 4,000 friars adorn the ossuary of the Santa Maria della Concezione (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1607 – 1671) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Santa Maria della Concezione is dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and it is located on the swanky Via Venato. It is commonly referred to as I Cappuccini, the church of the Capuchin Friars; which is a branch of the Franciscan Order.
Antonio Barberini (1607-1671) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The church was built in 1626 by Cardinal Antonio Barberini. He was Pope Urban VIII‘s younger brother. Cardinal Barberini was a Capuchin friar. He is buried is a simple grave under the altar where there is a tombstone with the inscription in Latin, “Here lies dust, ashes, nothing.”
Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini 5 (Photo credit: Johnny Söderberg)
The architects were Antonio Casoni and Michele da Bergamo, a Capuchin Friar. The church has a double set of stairs leading up to the church and a very simple facade.
English: Tomb of Saint Felix of Cantalice, in Santa Maria della Concezione, at Rome. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When the Capuchins moved from their convent near the Quirinal to this location, they brought the bones of about 4000 of their friars. The bones were placed in a cemetery under the chapels on the right side of the church. They arranged the bones in a variety of patterns on the walls and ceilings. Some of the skeletons are intact and draped with Capuchin robes. Two of the chapels have soil from the Holy Land. A plaque in one of the chapels reads, in three languages, “You are what we once were; you will be what we now are.”
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Guido Reni’s archangel Michael (in the Capuchin church of Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome) tramples Satan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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The vault has Liborio Coccetti’s fresco of the “Assumption.” The first chapel on the right has a gorgeous altarpiece of St. Michael the Archangel (1635) by Guido Reni and Gerrit van Honthorst‘s “Mocking of Christ.” The second chapel has a Transfiguration by Mario Balassi, and a Nativity (c. 1632) by Lanfranco.
The third chapel has a Saint Francis in Ecstasy by Domenichino. The fourth chapel houses a Prayer in the Gesthemane (c. 1632) by Baccio Ciarpi. In the fifth chapel is a Saint Anthony Raises a Dead Man to Life by Sacchi.
In the pavement, in front of the presbytery, is the tombstone of the churches founder, Cardinal Barberini. The Latin inscriptions says: “Here lie dust, ashes and nothing.”
Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1607-1671) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr. EveAnn Lovero writes Travel Guides @ www.vino-con-vista.com
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