Santa Maria del Priorato stands on the Aventine Hill in Rome, on the Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta. It is the priory church of the Knights of Malta. The first church was built in 939, after Odo of Cluny received the Roman palace of Alberic II of Spoleto, and it became a Cluniac Benedictine monastery. The Knights of Malta acquired the site in the fourteenth century, and the church was rebuilt in the 1550s.
In 1760 Cardinal Giovanni Battista Rezzonico, Grand Prior of the Knights of Malta, commissioned a renovation. Giovanni Battista Piranesi carried it out from 1764 to 1766, and it is his only architectural work. The facade has paired pilasters and reliefs of military and naval emblems.
The stucco main altar has a statue group by Tommaso Righi, and Piranesi is buried in the church. The piazza has a keyhole that frames a view of the dome of St. Peter's.
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