Santa Sabina & the Orange Garden
Why is it significant?
Walk through the gate into the garden, down the avenue of bitter orange trees, and keep going until you reach the parapet. There it is: the whole of Rome spread across the river, the domes floating above the roofs, and on the horizon, the great dome of Saint Peter's.
Key Facts
| Place | Santa Sabina & the Orange Garden |
|---|---|
| Address | Piazza Pietro d'Illiria 1, 00153 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.88460, 12.47970 |
| Part of Walk | The Keyhole and the Amphora Hill: Aventine Secrets & Testaccio's Roman Soul |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk through the gate into the garden, down the avenue of bitter orange trees, and keep going until you reach the parapet. There it is: the whole of Rome spread across the river, the domes floating above the roofs, and on the horizon, the great dome of Saint Peter's. Romans call this the Giardino degli Aranci, the Orange Garden, and they bring their first dates here.
Under your feet are the foundations of a medieval fortress of the Savelli family, the barons who once controlled this hill. The garden itself is young, laid out in 1932. But why oranges? For that, walk back to the church right next door, Santa Sabina, built in the fifth century and still almost exactly as it was.
Before you go in, look at the doors. They are made of cypress wood, carved around the year 430, and among their small panels is one of the oldest surviving images of the Crucifixion anywhere in the world. Early Christians hesitated to show Christ on the cross, the death of a slave. Here, for one of the first times, someone dared. Inside, light falls through windows of thin selenite, soft as candlelight, onto twenty-four ancient columns.
In 1219, the pope gave this church to a Spanish preacher called Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order. Dominic is said to have brought an orange seedling from Spain and planted it in the cloister, the first sweet orange tree in Italy, so the story goes. Through a small hole in the wall of the portico you can still glimpse an orange tree growing in the same spot. And look for a round black stone on a little column inside: the Lapis Diaboli, the devil's stone, which the devil supposedly hurled at Dominic while he prayed... and missed.
The monks who live here today still belong to Dominic's order; the master of the whole order has his seat here. Leave the church and continue along the quiet street to the end. There is a green door there with a famous little hole in it, and a queue of people bending down to look through.