Church of the Gesù
Il Gesù (Italian: Chiesa di Gesù all'Argentina Most Holy Nome, German Jesus Church ) is a church in Rome. She is the mother church of 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola founded and in 1540 by Pope Paul III. confirmed the Jesuit Order. As St. Peter's Basilica Il Gesu also exerted significant influence on the church architecture of the Baroque, it is the prototype of a Jesuit church. Your building's structure was the model for numerous baroque churches, especially the Jesuits, in the whole of Europe, such as St. Michael in Munich, St. Ignatius and Francis Xavier in Mannheim and St. Martin in Bamberg.
Construction of the designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola church was in 1568. Though the church has already been used in the Holy Year 1575, it took another nine years until the first consecration 1584. Significant influence on the shape of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese took the grandson of Paul III. and protector of the Jesuit order, who financed the construction for the most part. He was buried in the church, and his name appears prominently in the facade inscription.
Floor Plan and Exterior
Typical of the churches of Il Gesù - type are a barrel vaulted nave with a light-filled central dome and lower, side affiliated to the single-aisled nave chapels. One of the models for the wall structure is that of Leon Battista Alberti around a hundred years before, started church of Sant 'Andrea in Mantua. The floor plan of the Gesù, the compound of the central space of thought of the early Renaissance architecture can (similar to St. Peter's Basilica ) recognize a longhouse. The building type was also so popular because he was the re-arranged in the council of Trent liturgical needs in a special way.
Giacomo della Porta, who completed the successor Vignola construction, created by a triangular pediment crowned facade, which is characterized by increasing plasticity towards the center of the structure elements, and so far has been leading the way for the development of the Baroque church facade. The five-axis basement is divided with Corinthian, the smaller upstairs with composites Pilasterpaaren. Powerful scrolls cover the roof zone of the side chapels of the nave. A framed doubled shrine and emphasizes the main entrance of the church.
Interior
The sumptuously appointed with Columbus Gold interior has been remodeled from 1668 to 1673 in high baroque style. Particularly worth seeing is the ceiling fresco in the nave with the glorification of the name of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Baciccia: As in a vision of the sky seems to break through the built architecture and penetrate into the church.
The monumental grave altar of Saint Ignatius of Loyola in the left transept was built by the Jesuit architect Andrea Pozzo 1696-1700. The globe above the altar shall be constructed of the largest ever found lapis lazuli.
In the Church of the Gesù is the mummified arm of St. Francis Xavier, the founding member of the Jesuit order and was the first missionary came to faraway Asia. 1621 Michelangelo Cardinal Tonti was buried in the Gesù.
Il Gesu as the title Diakonia
The church is also the title Diakonia for a cardinal:
- Michele Pellegrino (1967-1986)
- Eduardo Martinez Somalo (since 1988, since 1999 ( the change from Somalo in the class of cardinal cardinal priest continued his titular church "pro hac vice " )