1200s Items (34 total)
Papal Patronage of San Cosimato
In the 1230’s, just 25 years after the foundation of the Franciscan orders, the convent of San Cosimato was formed when Pope Gregory IX gave a male Benedictine house to the Clares. The convent was one of three female Franciscan convents in Rome. The…
Saint Francis and the Church of San Francesco a Ripa
The Church of San Francesco a Ripa (or Ripa Grande) represents the oldest and perhaps the most significant Franciscan memory in Rome. Before the foundation of the church in 1229, there was a Benedictine monastery including a pre-existing church of…
Torre dei Conti: Protecting Papal Processions
The Torre dei Conti still guards the base of the steep Salita del Grillo road, as it has since its construction in the early thirteenth century when it was built by the Conti Pope Innocent III. Some claim that he used church funds to build the tower,…
The Salito del Grillo/Via de’ Conti: Fortifying the Arteries of the Disabitato
This rather small road, running adjacent to the Via dei Fori Imperiali linking the Capitoline and the Colosseum, is a must-see for those interested in the barons’ skirmishes that broke out periodically throughout Rome’s late medieval history. Three…
Medieval Processions: An Introduction
Religious processions were common occurrences in medieval Rome. Romans took to the streets to celebrate religious holidays and feast days, baptisms, and funerals almost weekly. The largest and grandest of the processions occurred more rarely: the…
Exterior Walls
Medieval Roman homes often had a storefront at street level, just as this home does today. Back in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, these spaces would have been cramped, spilling out into the street in a search for space. The interior of the…
Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia
The Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia, or the first monumental hospital built in Rome, was established under Pope Innocent III in the early 13th century CE. The complex got its name from its location at the site of the former Schola Saxonum, which…
Santa Maria in Aracoeli
Santa Maria in Aracoeli, or “Saint Mary in the Altar of the Sky,” is an incredibly important church that remains a major cultural, civic, and religious monument to this day. Situated on the Campidoglio, the governmental center of 13th and 14th…
San Silvestro in Capite
San Silvestro in Capite is a church with a rich legacy in Rome before it became the home of the Franciscans and the object of Colona patronage. A Dominican convent in the 13th century, it served as the base for rent collection for the church’s…
San Lorenzo in Panisperna
According to legend, San Lorenzo in Panisperna is located on the spot at which the martyr St. Lawrence of Rome was grilled to death and after became a moderately successful pilgrimage church due to the presence of his relics.
Much of the medieval art…
Franciscans in Rome: San Biagio and San Francesco a Ripa
San Francesco a Ripa, consecrated in 1601, succeeded San Biagio, which although no longer visible, is important to early Franciscan history in Rome. Founded in the 10th century by the Benedictines, Biagio functioned as a hospital and hospice for the…
Santa Sabina Convent
The park to the southwest of Santa Sabina offers a great view of the large, active Dominican convent. Disguised in a modern facade, the medieval section of the convent still stands towards the Tiber paired with a more modern extension towards the…
Santa Sabina Basilica
The basilica of Santa Sabina dates from the fifth century, making it one of the oldest basilicas in Rome. Pope Honorius III donated the basilica to the Dominicans in 1220 in response to the newly recognized order’s need for a center of operations in…
The History of San Sisto Vecchio
The abbey of San Sisto was created by Innocent III and finished by Honorius III to consolidate the smaller communities of uncloistered “holy women” that were flourishing in Rome during the 13th century. After Dominic came to Rome in 1216, he lobbied…
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva was the second Dominican Basilica in Rome. In the late 13th century, the site was ceded to the Dominicans by the nuns of Santa Maria. The transfer was ratified in 1279 by Aldobrandino Cavalcanti, a Dominican and Vicar to…
Introduction to Dominicans in Medieval Rome
On this tour we will examine how the Dominican entry into Rome began to change the religious landscape of the city and how the Order established their newfound significance by developing theological curriculum at Santa Sabina, creating new mendicant…
Ponte Rotto
This bridge was built as Pons Aemelius in 179 B.C. As early as the 6th century, during the papacy of Gregory the Great, it formed a vital connection between the two most populated areas of Rome: Trastevere and the area between the east bank and the…
A French Gothic Ciborium in an Italian Medieval City
Upon entering Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, one’s eyes are attracted to the large carved stone structure that appears to compliment the apse’s mosaic. This structure is a ciborium and is one of the well-known creations of the sculptor Arnolfo di…
From Grills to Grievances: San Lorenzo in Panisperna
According to legend, San Lorenzo in Panisperna is located on the spot at which martyr St. Lawrence of Rome was grilled to death. It was constructed (by one account) at the beginning of the fourth century during the reign of Constantine. San Lorenzo’s…
The Disabitato: Farms, Families, and Open Space
Throughout much of the medieval period, Rome’s population was a fraction of the one million residents it had at its peak in Classical Antiquity. With much of the medieval population clustered near the banks of the Tiber River, there lay a vast…
The Savelli Ruins on the Aventine Hill
During the Middle Ages there was a general movement towards habitation along the Tiber, partly because the climate allowed for less flooding of the river and partly because of a need for water due to the lack of working aqueducts. However, there is…
The Column of Flagellation at the Basilica di Santa Prassede
Upon entering the San Zeno Chapel, located in the Basilica di Santa Prassede, a dark marble object, spotted with white, lies in a niche to the right (Figure 1). The object appears to be an oddly large chess piece, but is allegedly the column upon…
13th-Century Flood Marker
Before the embankment project of the late 19th century, flooding of the Tiber river was a fact of Roman life. Built on a natural floodplain, Rome would experienced catastrophic floods at least twice per century. Waters would engulf houses and…
The Monte Mario as a Portal to the City
"Monte Mario was the first overlook of the city for all travellers and pilgrims coming south along the old Via Cassia and then the Via Francigena into Rome. It was the first chance for those who had survived long and arduous journeys to finally look…
A Hole in the Walls: The Hospital-cum-Monastery at San Tommaso in Formis
Perched about halfway up the Caelian Hill is San Tomasso in Formis, built into the side of the Aqua Claudia. The history of the complex largely begins with John of Matha, a Provencal priest. Shortly after his ordination, he was inspired to found a…
Medieval Gardens: Cloister of SS. Quattro Coronati
The restored garden in the cloister at SS. Quattro Coronati is a beautiful, private, natural space tucked within the walls of a monastery. This type of garden would have been much more common in the Middle Ages in a variety of settings. In the late…
The Last Judgement by Pietro Cavallini
The painting is currently located on the inner façade of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, right above the entrance. The Last Judgement scene was first made to occupy the entire east wall, opposite to the west apse. However, it was later covered up by…
Vineyards and Towers: The history of Rome's Caffarella Valley
While the center of Rome can be hectic and claustrophobic, it only takes a short bus ride (30 minutes, to be exact) to reach the Caffarella Valley, a beautifully preserved park that maintains some characteristics of the historically romanticized…
Thinking About Race in Medieval Rome: The San Tommaso Moasaic
In 1193, Jean de Matha, a French priest, had a vision of Christ grasping two men by the arm: one white and the other black. This vision inspired him to create the Trinitarian order, whose goal it was to free Christian captives from their Muslim…