Santa Maria in Aracoeli

Santa Maria in Aracoeli (Latin: Sanctae Mariae de Ara coeli, dt: Saint Mary of the Altar of Heaven ), also in Ara Coeli Santa Maria is a church in Rome. The genesis of the minor basilica is attributed to a legendary vision of the Emperor Augustus at the time of the birth of Christ, who is said to have consecrated at the site of the present church for the first time a celestial altar.

The church is located in the center of Rome on the Capitoline Hill, between Piazza Venezia and the Palazzo Nuovo on the Campidoglio. By gigantic, 1911, inaugurated a national monument, the church is completely cut off from the Piazza Venezia.

5.1 Middle Ages
5.2 Literature of the Modern Period

The Legend of the Altar of Heaven

The history of the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli should go back to the birth of Christ to the time. At the present site of the church was in ancient times a temple which was dedicated to the Roman goddess Juno. Emperor Augustus is said to have received the legend, the vision of a woman in the glory that held up the sky a child in her arms. One then summoned pagan seer, the Tiburtian Sibylle could interpret the dream as a sign of the birth of the Savior in the reign of the Emperor, whereupon the Emperor recognized the heavenly reign of the coming Christ and him and the woman in Juno Temple is a heaven altar (Latin ara coeli ) was built.

With today in Santa Maria in Aracoeli in the chapel of St Helena to place altar stone from the time of Augustus it is to concern the ara coeli the legend. A scene with Augustus and the Sibyl is shown on the side of the high altar.

Architectural History

Already in the 8th century was a Greek monastery at its present location. After this had been passed in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV to the Franciscans, this began with the construction of the current basilica with three naves. Today, it is titular church of Cardinal Priest Salvatore De Giorgi.

Interior decoration

Nave

The 22 pillars inside the church were taken from various ancient monuments. In the third column of the left row even the origin noted. It dates from the Imperial Bedroom (a Cubículo Augustorum ) had where to get his vision by some legends of the emperor.

The floor of the church is a Kosmatenarbeit and dates back to the 13th century. The magnificent painted ceiling be reminiscent of the Battle of Lepanto 1571st The study was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII. made.

High altar

In the center of the high altar there is an icon of the Mother of God.

Chapel of St. Helena

In the chapel of St. Helen, the mother of the first Christian -minded Emperor Constantine found their final resting place. The church also is the resting place of the last Bosnian queen Katarina Kosača - Kotromanić.

Chapel of Saint Bernard of Siena

Pinturicchio painted around 1485 the so-called Capella Bufalini with frescoes; they tell the life story of the Franciscan monk Bernardine of Siena, was canonized in 1450 and was considered an important representative of the populist Christian piety. One of the frescoes is including St. Bernard and further the Saints Louis of Toulouse and Anthony of Padua dar. Christ between angels and

Chapel of the Santo Bambino

In the chapel of the Santo Bambino there is the statue of the Holy Child. Santa Maria in Aracoeli considered to be the church of the Roman people, and includes a well-known traditional symbol of popular piety in Rome, as miraculous Santo Bambino applicable ( Holy Child ). There is a carved olive wood figure of the Christ Child, which was made by a Franciscan monk in the 15th century out of a tree from the Garden of Gethsemane. In 1994, the original figure was stolen and not recovered, so the Holy Child had to be later replaced by a copy. Here donated even the inmates of the prison in Rome for the new figure, since they admitted though to be villains, but not ungodly villains.

Parvis

The steep staircase that leads outside, with 124 steps to the church, was completed in 1348. The tribune Cola di Rienzo held here his speeches to the Roman people. Between the steep Aracoeli staircase and the very broad and rather a ramp the same end Cordonata staircase that leads to the Capitol, he built his monument in the 19th century.

Reception

Middle Ages

The vision of the Emperor Augustus and the Sibyl Tiburtian, in the Legenda Aurea, a medieval collection of legends from the late 13th century, reported founding legend of the church to heaven altar, belonged in the Middle Ages probably the most famous announcements of the birth of Christ. Has been spread among the people by following legend texts and extremely numerous pictorial representations, especially in the churches in Western Europe in the 15th century. Even in late Wed parent after 1500 it was reported in the popular Chronicles printed and illustrated. The Church of the Heavenly altar reached by the Middle Ages a high level of awareness.

Literature of modern times

The founding legend of the Church Altar of Heaven and a miraculous image of Christ, which is located in the church play a central role in the novel The Miracles of Antichrist by Selma Lagerlof.

Classical antiquity Paganism Tiburtine Sibyl Helena (empress)

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