Santa Maria in Traspontina: The Church Without a Dome
Why is it significant?
Stand on the pavement of the broad avenue and face the church's sober travertine front, with its stacked pilasters and statues in niches... and notice what is missing. Most Roman churches of this size carry a dome. This one doesn't, and the reason is military.
Key Facts
| Place | Santa Maria in Traspontina: The Church Without a Dome |
|---|---|
| Address | Via della Conciliazione 14, 00193 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90220, 12.46170 |
| Part of Walk | Pilgrims, Popes and Swiss Guards: Rome's Vatican and the Medieval Borgo |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the pavement of the broad avenue and face the church's sober travertine front, with its stacked pilasters and statues in niches... and notice what is missing. Most Roman churches of this size carry a dome. This one doesn't, and the reason is military.
The old church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, beyond the bridge, stood closer to Castel Sant'Angelo. In the 1560s it was demolished because it got in the way of the fortress's defences, and the new church was begun here, further off, in 1566. The story goes that it was deliberately left without a dome so as not to block the castle's line of fire across the Borgo. Even churches had to bow to the artillery.
The ground around you hides another lost monument. Somewhere near here stood the Meta Romuli, a tall Roman pyramid tomb, a twin of the pyramid that still stands by the Porta San Paolo. Medieval pilgrims believed it was the tomb of Romulus himself. Its marble facing was stripped to pave the steps of the old St Peter's, and in 1499 Pope Alexander the Sixth cleared away what remained to open a straight new street to the Vatican for his Jubilee.
Inside, the Carmelite friars who run the church guard an unusual pair of relics: two columns said to be those to which the apostles Peter and Paul were tied and scourged before their martyrdom. Tradition, not documentation... but for medieval pilgrims, this was one of the stations on the road to St Peter's, and plenty of them knelt here before they ever saw the basilica.
Now look up and down the avenue. Everything around you, the straight lines, the matching palaces, the rows of stone lamp posts shaped like little obelisks, is less than a century old. Walk on towards the dome and stop a little further along, where the avenue opens wide and the basilica fills the end of the view.