Santo Stefano al Monte Celio
Santo Stefano Rotondo, also known as Santo Stefano al Monte Celio, is an ancient basilica church in Rome. It lies on the Caelian Hill.
History
The edifice was consecrated by Pope Simplicius between 468 and 483. It was dedicated to protomartyr Saint Stephen, whose body had been discovered a few decades before in the Holy Land, and brought into Rome. The church was the first in Rome to have a circular plan, inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Santo Stefano was probably financed by the wealthy Valerius family, whose estates covered large parts of the Caelian Hill. Their villa stood nearby, on the site of the present-day Hospital of San Giovanni - Addolorata. St Melanie, a member of the family, was a frequent pilgrim to Jerusalem and died there, so the family had connections to the Holy Land.
Originally the church had three concentrical ambulatories flanked by 22 Ionic columns, which surround the central circular space surmounted by a tambour (22 m high and 22 m wide). There were 22 windows in the tambour but most of them were walled up in the 15th century restoration. The outermost corridor was later demolished.
The church was embellished by Pope John I and Pope Felix IV in the 6th century. In 1130 Innocent II had added three transversal arches to support the dome.
In the Middle Ages, Santo Stefano Rotondo was charged to the Canons of San Giovanni in Laterano, but as time went on it fell unto disrepair. In the middle of the 15th century, Flavio Biondo praised the marble columns, marble covered walls and cosmatesque works-of-art of the church, but he added that unfortunately "nowadays Santo Stefano Rotondo hadn't got any roof". Blondus claimed that the church was built on the remains of an ancient Temple of Faunus. Excavations in 1969 to 1975 revealed that the building was actually never converted from a pagan temple but was always a church, erected under Constantine I in the first half of the 4th century.
In 1454, Pope Nicholas V entrusted the ruined church to the Pauline Fathers, the only Catholic Order founded by Hungarians. This was the reason why Santo Stefano Rotondo later became the unofficial church of the Hungarians in Rome. The church was restored by Bernardo Rossellino, probably under the guidance of Leon Battista Alberti.
In 1579, the Hungarian Jesuits followed the Pauline Fathers. The Collegium Hungaricum, established here by István Arator that year, was soon merged with the Collegium Germanicum in 1580, becoming the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum, because very few Hungarian student was able to travel to Rome from the Turkish-occupied Kingdom of Hungary.
The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Stephani in Coelio Monte has been Friedrich Cardinal Wetter since 1985. His predecessor, József Mindszenty was famous as the persecuted Catholic leader of Hungary under the Communist dictature.
Works of art
The walls of the church are decorated with numerous frescoes, including those of Niccolò Circignani (Niccolò Pomarancio) and Antonio Tempesta portraying 34 scenes of martyrdom, commissioned by Gregory XIII in the 16th century. All painting has an inscription explaing the scene and the name of the emperor who ordered the executions, as well as quotations from the Bible. The paintings are somewhat morbid, if not gruesome and naturalistic depictions of torture and execution.
The altar was made by the Florentine artist Bernardo Rossellino in the 15th century. The painting in the apse shows Christ between two martyrs. The mosaic and marble decoration is from the period 523-530. One mosaic shows the martyrs St Primus and St Felicianus flanking a jewelled cross.
There is a tablet recording the burial here of the Irish king Donough O'Brien of Cashel and Thomond, who died in Rome in 1064.
An ancient chair of Pope Gregory the Great from around 580 is preserved here.
The Chapel of Ss. Primo e Feliciano has very interesting and rare mosaics from the 7th century. The chapel was built by Pope Theodore I who brought here the relics of the martyrs and buried them (together with the remains of his father).
Mithraeum
Under the church there is a 2nd century mithraeum, related to the presence of the barracks of Roman soldiers in the neighbourhood. The cult of Mithras was especially popular among soldiers. The remains of Castra Peregrinorum, the baracks of the peregrini, officials detached for special service to the capital from the provincial armies, were found right under Santo Stefano Rotondo. The mihraeum belonged to Castra Peregrinorum but it was probably also attended by the soldiers of Cohors V Vigilum, whose barracks stood nearby on the other side of Via della Navicella.
The mithraeum is currently being excavated. The remains of the Roman military barracks (from the Severan Age) and the mithraeum under the church remained closed from the public. A coloured marble bas-relief, "Mithras slaying the bull" from the 3rd century is today in Museo Nazionale Romano.
Hungarian Chapel
Contrary to other nations of Europe, Hungarians lack their national church in Rome because the old Santo Stefano degli Ungheresi near the Vatican was pulled down to make way for the sacristy of the St Peter's Basilica in 1778. As a compensation for the loss of the ancient church, Pope Pius VI built a Hungarian chapel in Santo Stefano Rotondo according to the plans of Pietro Camporesi.
The Hungarian chapel is dedicated to King Stephen I of Hungary, Szent István, the canonized first king of the Magyars. The feast of St Stephen is held on 20 August. Hungarian pilgrims frequently visit the place.
Hungarian experts took part in the ongoing restoration and archeological exploration of the church during the 20th century together with German and Italian colleagues. Notable Hungarian visitors were Vilmos Fraknói, Frigyes Riedl and László Cs. Szabó who all wrote about the history and importance of Santo Stefano.
Recent archeological explorations revelead the late antique floor of the church in the chapel. The floor is composed of coloured marble slabs and was restored in 2006 by an international team led by Zsuzsanna Wierdl.
The frescoes of the chapel were painted in 1776 but recently older strata of paintings were discovered under them.
Archdeacon János Lászai, canon of Gyulafehérvár, was buried in the Santo Stefano Rotondo in 1523. Lászai left Hungary and moved to Rome where he became a papal confessor. His burial monument is an interesting example of Renessaince funeral sculpture. The inscription says: "Roma est patria omnium" (Rome is everybody's home).
See also
References
- Federico Gizzi, Le chiese medievali di Roma, Newton Compton, Rome, 1998.
External links
- Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio, by Chris Nyborg.
- Photos of the discovered Roman floor, with Hungarian text only