Le Chiese delle Cittá: Chiesa Nuova (Santa Maria in Vallicella)

It is my third week in Rome, and I’m still pretty much hanging out in the Piazza della Rotonda (featuring the Pantheon which was featured in last week’s installment of this series.) My architecture project currently is to analyze a sequence of piazze centered on della Rotonda. However, I still have time to explore certain areas of the city. Fortunately, the subject of this week’s installment is within five minutes from my hotel.

Per request, I stopped by Santa Maria in Vallicella (Saint Mary in the Little Valley) which is in the little valley where I live between the Capitoline Hill and the Tiber River. In fact, as I said, it is just down the street from San Andrea della Valle (Saint Andrew of the Valley), my Friendly Neighborhood Basilica. There are a lot of churches in this valley.

S. Maria in V. was the principal church for the Oratorians when St. Philip Neri formed the Congregation. Because of this, it is basically secondarily dedicated to St. Philip Neri.

In fact, he is buried there. St. Philip Neri was also the chaplain to the Massimo family who lived about two blocks away in the famous palazzo-turned-museum. He even raised Paolo Massimo from the dead to give a final confession and prepare for death. We all need a St. Philip Neri in our lives.

There is a chapel in the Palazzo Massimo that is open once a year on the feast of St. Philip Neri, but unfortunately that is not now. Alas.

Now for the architecture. S. Maria in V. has, as most churches in Rome do, three entrances on the front facade. The last two churches I featured did not have this condition, however this may be because the Pantheon was originally not a church and Sant’Eustachio was originally a Romanesque structure. However, S. Maria was rebuilt in the Baroque period, not just redecorated and so it has the tri-portal condition.

The symbolism of three doors is perhaps too obvious to state. Trinitarian symbolism is all over ecclesiastical architecture and this would be one example. However, a tripartite system was often used in pre-christian buildings because of the implications for symmetry. Thus, the tri-portal system is symbolic, aesthetically pleasing, and also functional…more doors, more people can get in at a time. The central door is greater in size than the flanking doors and this gives hierarchy to the central procession of the church.

Let us talk, then, about that procession. It is very similar to other traditional church processions viz. door, vestibule, main aisle, sanctuary, high altar. Really, nothing to see here. Well, that’s not strictly accurate. For one thing, currently (although not the original condition and really having nothing to do with the architecture) the pews are divided into four columns. This creates a central aisle and two side aisles within the nave itself. This actually does say something about the architecture, namely that the nave is wide enough to accommodate this. In fact, there are a couple of things that indicate this great width.

For one, there are side aisles and side chapels. This is different from Il Gesu and Sant’ Andrea della Valle which have wide naves and side chapels on either side with doorways connecting them. This distinction may seem like a small one, but the chapels are not aisles in the other churches. They are merely connected. The circulation of the church is primarily the nave whereas in S. Maria in V., the aisles provide an enclosed space in which to walk down the church without disturbing the liturgy. This was especially apparent when I went in there looking for a Mass and came upon a real live Italian wedding. I was able to keep to myself while looking at the church because of these side aisles.

Also, the piers that separate the nave from the side aisles are very wide. So wide in fact that a whole confessional can fit between the nave and side aisle. Admittedly, they are small ones, but there are a lot of them and the piers are as wide as they are.

Speaking of the side aisles, at the end of one is the St. Philip Neri Chapel which is richly gilded. In fact, to me, it seems almost more important than the main altar. This is where the tomb of St. Philip Neri is.

Now, I’d like to say something about the ceiling condition. Over the nave is a painting of “The Miracle of the Madonna della Vallicella.”
The dome has a painting of the Trinity and has four proper pendentives (triangular-ish pieces that transition between round and rectangular spaces) which hold paintings of the four major prophets. The dome however does not have a proper drum and because of this, there are no windows in it and it smoothly transitions into the nave paintings.

All in all, one of the most impressive churches I’ve seen yet here in Rome. I especially like the separate side aisles and side chapels. As an architect, I am really in tune to the differentiation of spaces, and it seems to me that this is a very sensible one.

Ciao for now. Let me know about any requests.