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Santa Maria del Popolo

Santa Maria del Popolo

Andrea Bregno, Donato Bramante & Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Photo: Jakub Hałun · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Rome, Italy
Client / Owner
Pope Sixtus IV
Year
Completed 1477
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual

Pope Sixtus IV ordered the reconstruction, which replaced the medieval church between 1472 and 1477 with a three-aisled basilica and an octagonal dome over the crossing. The article says the original architect is unknown. Vasari credited Baccio Pontelli, which modern researchers consider dubious, and Andrea Bregno is the leading proposed name.

Bramante designed the apse built from 1505 to 1510 for Julius II. Raphael designed the Chigi Chapel for the banker Agostino Chigi, with a dome mosaic of the Creation of the World, and Bernini completed it for Fabio Chigi, with the last statue placed in 1661. Bernini modernized the church in a Baroque style from 1655 to 1658.

The Cerasi Chapel, designed by Carlo Maderno in 1600 and 1601, holds Caravaggio's Conversion on the Way to Damascus and Crucifixion of St. Peter, which the article calls among the most important works in the basilica. The travertine facade is early Renaissance.

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