Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

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Santa Cruz in Mexico (2006-2009)

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Latin: Sanctae Crucis in Hierusalem, German: Holy Cross in Jerusalem) is one of the seven Roman pilgrimage churches. Their meaning is obtained in particular due to various of stored here cross relics that have given her the name. As titular church you will be assigned a cardinal priest. Since 1994, this Miloslav Vlk.

History

From the beginning of the 12th century to the 16th century, the church was a Carthusian monastery connected. Since 1561 lived here for the care of the parish Cistercians, last of the Congregation of San Bernardo d' Italia.

After an Apostolic Visitation this Cistercian abbey of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was lifted in March 2011, by decree of the religious congregation. House and Basilica were handed over to the Vicariate of Rome.

Architectural History

The church is located less than 1 km east of the Lateran to the Aurelian Walls. It was formed from the 3rd-century palace Sessorium. A 36.5 m long and 21.8 m wide hall of the palace was converted into a church by 330. According to the Liber Pontificalis was the palace owned by the Empress Helena. Three inscriptions that have been discovered near the Basilica of St. Croce, prove that they inhabited it. For example, reminds one of the inscriptions on the reconstruction of the destroyed by fire in public bathrooms near the palace, which were called before the year 325 Thermae Helenae.

Under the cardinal priests Gerardus, who later became Pope Lucius II, the church was rebuilt in the 12th century and provided inter alia for power demonstration with a tower. He will have discovered one half of the cross- track ( INRI ), which he then einmauerte in a lead box with his seal in a niche above the triumphal arch of the Helena Chapel - including an ancient brick with the inscription: titulus crucis ( The cross - inscription ). In renovation work on the church, this tile was discovered on February 1, 1492 hidden under the plaster. During the Renaissance and Baroque periods (15th- 18th century), more changes were made, which almost completely destroyed the original appearance of the church. However, frescoes of the old church are now on display in a museum.

At the erected in the 18th century facade of the church, the interplay of concave and convex lines falls on. The architects, inspired by Borromini, but already influenced by Rococo, were Domenico Gregorini and Pietro Passalacqua. On the roof are statues of the Empress Helena with the Cross (far left) and her son Constantine (far right). From the ancient granite columns inside the church are only eight visible; the others were covered with baroque pillars. Have been preserved Cosmati the floor from the 12th century, and the resulting 1490 fresco in the apse, which is Antoniazzo Romano attributed; it is the finding of the Holy Cross and about Christ blessing dar.

Pietà on the altar

Apse fresco

Kosmatenmosaik

Works of art and relics

The reconstruction of the palace hall of the church was made to accommodate a number of Christian relics from the environment of the crucifixion of Jesus. Among the relics to objects to which the following origin is attributed are: the smallest parts of the cross of Christ Himself (the large piece of wood of the Holy Cross in the Vatican was brought from S. Croce in Gerusalemme in 1629 in St. Peter's Basilica ), a crossbar is one of the Schächerkreuze, two thorns of the crown of thorns, a nail from the cross of Christ and the saints half of Kreuzestitulus, which was originally embedded hidden in an arch of Helen Chapel and marked with a stone with the inscription titulus crucis. These relics were brought according to legend of Empress Helena from the Holy Land.

Another great relic is hidden now in the Museum of the church standing mosaic icon of the 14th century, allegedly Pope Gregory the Great by a vision of Christ I can make. It is integrated in a wooden frame, which has numerous small compartments for relics. In many cases, the icon is placed in the context of the late medieval pictorial type of Gregor Fair in conjunction.

The mortal remains of the six-year old girl who died Antonietta Meo, called Nennolina were transferred in 1999 to the church and set up a separate memorial room for them.

Name

Inside the church there is the so-called Helena chapel whose floor was said to be covered with soil from the Holy Land. Therefore, this base has been rewritten to the Holy Land, which the Church was also their strange names in Gerusalemme. The inscription in the Helena Chapel is: HIC TELLUS SANCTA CALVA, RIE SOLIME AB BEATA HELENA, IN INFERIOREM FORNICEM, demissa SERVATA EST ARQUE, INDE NOMEN Hierusalem, CAPELLE INDITUM ("Here is the holy earth from Calvary of Jerusalem, of the Blessed Helena in. spread lower vaults, stored, over which they built this chapel with the name Jerusalem " ) the book of the popes, the Liber Pontificalis, writes in the Chronicle of Pope Sylvester I: " the Emperor Constantine built a basilica in Sessorianischen palace, in the he kept in a decorated with precious stones Gold Shrine parts of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, where he consecrated also the name of the Church, which is known to this day as Jerusalem. "

Late Medieval Pilgrim leaders this chapel was considered so sacred that it could not be entered by women, which was also true of the Lateran palace chapel Sancta Sanctorum.

Gardens

The main wall of an ancient amphitheater comprise the land, have invested in the Cistercian the beautiful botanical garden with vegetable garden.