San Giovanni dei Fiorentini

San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini (St John of the Florentines) is a church in Rome on Via Giulia in rione Ponte.

History

When the Florentines decided to build a church in Rome in the 15th century, Jacopo Sansovino won the competition to design it, against competitors like Raphael, Giuliano da Sangallo and Baldassare Peruzzi. He started building in 1509, but did not manage to complete the church. By the time it was completed in 1734/1738, another five architects had worked on it: Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, Borromini - who designed the high altar and is buried in this church's nave - and finally Carlo Maderno, also buried here, who completed its cupola in 1634. The last part to be completed was the present façade, under Alessandro Galilei, who died the year before its completion.

St. Philip Neri, founded the Congregation of the Oratory while a parish priest here. A chapel is dedicated to him.

A painting of a young St. John the Baptist in 15th century Florentine style (attributed to Donatello and sometimes to young Michelangelo) hangs over the sacristy, and at the high altar is a sculpture of the Baptism of Christ by Antonio Raggi. Other works in San Giovanni include paintings by Ludovico Cigoli, Santi di Tito and Salvator Rosa; sculptures by Francois Duquesnoy; and the crypt sepulchre of the Falconieri family by Francesco Borromini. The Sacchetti family, which owned a nearby palazzo, commissioned Giovanni Lanfranco's Sacchetti Chapel, with a fine Ascension of Christ, in the early 1620's.

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