Sant'Agnese in Agone

English name:	St Agnes at the Circus Agonalis
Latin name:	Sanctae Agnetis in Agone
Dedication:	Agnes
Denomination:	Roman Catholic
Type:	Titular church
Titular church	Lorenzo Antonetti
Built:	12th century, enlarged 17th century
Consecrated:	28 January 1123
Architect(s):	Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi, Borromini, Bernini
Artists:	Il Baciccia, Alessandro Algardi,
Address:	30 Via di Santa Maria dell' Anima (Piazza Navona) 00186 Roma
Phone:	06 68 19 21 34

<place lat="41.898911" lon="12.472645" zoom="16" width="250" />

Sant'Agnese in Agone is a famous 17th century church of ancient foundation in the Piazza Navona, which is in the rione Parione. Pictures of the church on Wikimedia Commons. [1] There is an English Wikipedia page. [2]

The dedication is to St Agnes, and this is the traditional site of her martyrdom.

History

Stadium Domitiani

The early history of the church is inextricably bound up with the great ancient Roman athletics stadium which used to occupy the area of the present piazza, and which has left remains in the crypt. The Stadium Domitiani was built by the emperor Domitian in the year 86 for athletics competitions in the Greek style, of which he was a fan. Unlike modern athletics stadiums, this one was shaped like an extended horseshoe with the start and end of running races at the southern, straight end. 

The structure was massive, and was constructed in brick and limestone. The cavea or terraces for the spectators (10 600 could be accommodated) were in tiers, supported by massive arched vaults with the outer walls faced in travertine. There was much sculptural decoration, and the famous nearby statue of the Pasquino is thought to be a surviving remnant of it.

The stadium was also known as the Campus or Circus Agonalis. This comes from the Greek word αγων (agōn), which means a competition involving some effort, usually physical. Hence, it came to mean an athletics meeting, and gave the name agone to the church. (The latter has nothing to do with the English word "agony", which is derivative.) Campus Agonalis mutated over the centuries into navona.

The stadium had a long  history. It survived as an open space all the way through the Middle Ages, and in fact was one of the few that the mediaeval city had. Until 1477, when the city's main market was moved to here from the foot of the Capitoline, it continued to be used for sports and games. Only in the 15th century did the old cavea get quarried away completely and be replaced by domestic buildings.

The saint

St Agnes was buried in the catacombs at the present basilica of Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura after her martyrdom in 304. She is one of the great Roman virgin martyrs, but unfortunately the earliest references to her are not easy to reconcile. The complete legend that has come down to us, and which obviously influenced the works of art featuring her, is from the early 5th century and was published in both Greek and Latin. It seems to be a romance derived from the hints in the earlier sources, and hence unreliable.

The earliest narrative evidence is from St Ambrose, whose homily in her honour from the end of the 4th century describes her as just about at marriageable age, which was twelve in ancient Rome. In custody she refused to marry, which would have commuted her sentence of death as a Christian, and said that she did not want any man looking at her body. She was formally executed with the sword, which indicates that she was from a family of high social status. Further the fact that the body was released for burial, instead of being disposed of with contempt, reinforces this supposition. Hence, we glimpse a cemetery on the site of the basilica for people of some social standing. Also, the fact that she was allowed by her father to make a public proclamation of Christianity indicates that the family was Christian. Ancient Roman girls were absolutely under the control of their fathers (or nearest male relatives) until they married.

The trouble starts with the poetic epitaph composed for her grave by Pope St Damasus, slightly earlier than Ambrose, which is extant and visible at the basilica's entrance. It describes how the saint, at the first proclamation of the Great Persecution by the emperor Diocletian, rushed into the street to proclaim her Christianity and was seized and burned to death as a result. This fate would have been for a person of lower social status, unless her hostile father permitted it. Ambrose and Damasus obviously had different versions of the story. The epitaph also describes how she was forced to pose nude after her arrest, and preserved her modesty with her very long hair (Nudaque profusum crimen per membra dedisse). This episode is familiar in the iconography.

Prudentius, contemporary with Ambrose, adds the detail that the saint was sent to be "exposed in a brothel" before execution, where a young man who looked at her naked was struck blind. This theme is continued in the legendary acta, where her hair grows miraculously to cover her. This event allegedly took place in one of the arch-vaulted chambers under the terraces of the Stadium Domitiani, and her execution then occurred in the stadium itself. Just how horrible these chambers were can be realized from the Latin word fornicatio, literally meaning "things taking place under the arches" but giving the English word "fornication".

The church here preserves the alleged head of the saint, while the rest of her remains are enshrined at the basilica.

It may be noted that being "exposed in a brothel" in reality did not involve pornographic modelling. It is known to have been inflicted on Christian women of low or no social status, such as slaves, and entailed being chained to a bed and raped by the brothel's clients until death through exhaustion. One scholarly opinion is that the Agnes story has its ultimate source in a young Christian girl who was abducted, molested and killed at the stadium in this way, but this is controversial and the present consensus is that the Ambrose version is probably nearest the truth.

Oratory

An oratory was established in the vaulted chambers where the brothel concerned had been located by tradition. The first evidence of it comes from the end of the 8th century, when it was mentioned in the Itinerary of Einsiedeln as dedicated to St Agnes. At this time, it was served by Basilian monks of the Byzantine rite.

There is a reference dating to 999 which shows that these vaulted chambers were being used as warehouses by Benedictine abbeys with property portfolios in the area, so the cavea of the stadium was still structurally intact then. The abbey of Farfa had a dependent convent at what is now San Luigi dei Francesi nearby, and was responsible for the administration of the oratory by this date. Given the pilgrimage interest in St Agnes by then, the oratory would have been a profitable little enterprise.

There were other oratories or chapels in these vaults; one dedicated to St Catherine is on record, and the church of Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore on the other side of the piazza derives from another one.

Mediaeval church

According to an epigraph, now lost, a church here was consecrated by Pope Callixtus II on 28 January 1123. This was almost certainly after the rebuilding of the oratory as a church.

In 1186 the church was listed as dependent on San Lorenzo in Damaso, and the Catalogue of Turin, c. 1320, states that it had one priest. It would have been fully parochial by this time.

In 1597, the Benedictines of Farfa gave up the patronage of the church, and it was transferred to the Minor Clerks Regular known as Caracciolini. They executed a major restoration.

By this time, the Piazza Navona contained several palazzi of high-status families, and it is on record that they used the church as a location for their sepulchral monuments. However one family, the Pamphilj (note the "j"), executed a successful takeover and turned the church into their private possession.

A plan of 1652 by Giovanni Battista Mola (1585-1665) survives of the small old church, which was commissioned when the rebuilding project was mooted. The old church also features in several contemporary depictions of the piazza.

The two entrances were on the present Via di Santa Maria dell'Anima, from which two sets of stairs led to a small basilical layout with three pillars on each side supporting the central ceiling vault. A narrow rectangular apse had  an exit in its far wall which led into the Piazza Navona. The plan was rather irregular, the walls of the church being slightly skew, and a neighbouring building intruded into the near left hand corner. There was a squat tower campanile, with pinnacles and balustrades on top which must have been added by the Clerks Regular.

Pamphilj Takeover

The Pamphilj family were not Roman patricians, but had migrated to Rome from Gubbio to seek their fortune at the end of the 15th century. Their enemies accused them of having been terroni who lived with their chickens, but this was untrue. Incredibly, they managed to have a family member elected as Pope Innocent X in 1644; he was a very capable pope, but thoroughly nepotistic and the family never looked back.

Early in his reign, the family built a palazzo next to the church which was designed by Girolamo Rainaldi. Then the pope had the idea of rebuilding the church as the mortuary chapel of the palazzo, in effect, and made the Clerks Regular an offer that they couldn't refuse. They moved to San Lorenzo in Lucina, and the parish was suppressed.

Rebuilding

ordered it enlarged in 1652. The first project was designed by and Carlo Rainaldi, but the pope was not happy with it, and gave the task to Francesco Borromini in 1653. Innocent X died in 1655, and work proceeded slowly under his nephew Camillo Pamphili. Borromini wanted to move on, and Carlo Rainaldi took over. Camillo also died before the church was finished, and his wife decided to call in Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He altered Borromini's design, leaving the the façade mainly as planned but adding a high pediment surmounted by an attic. The rebuilding was completed in 1672, and the church was consecrated on 17 January of that year.

Cardinalate

In July 1517, Pope Leo X made this a titular church. The title was suppressed by Pope Innocent XI in 1654, and transferred to Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura. In 1998, the church here was re-established as a titular deaconry by Pope John Paul II, with Lorenzo Antonetti as cardinal deacon.

Exterior

The wide, concave façade is the work of Rainaldi (although most of if was planned by Borromini), who worked on it from 1657 to 1672. It was very influential on later Baroque architecture in Europe.

Many guides in Rome will explain how Bernini made one of the personifications in his Fountain of the Four Rivers hold his hand as if protecting himself from the imminent collapse of the façade. It is true that the relationship between Borromini and Bernini was tense (although they did work together at one time), but the fountain was completed before the façade so the apparent gesture was not intentional.

Interior

The cross plan of Rainaldi was preserved, and Borromini added 8 large Corinthian columns of red marble on which the dome rests. This emphasizes the octagonal shape of the intersection, and many fail to notice the Greek cross plan.

The church has frescoes by Ciro Ferri, Sebastiano Corbellini and Il Baciccia, painted in the late 17th century. Ferri's work includes the paintings in the dome.

The body of Pope Innocent X rests in a crypt to the left of the altar. Above the main entrance, you can see his funerary monument from 1730, by G.B. Maini.

The altarpiece is by Alessandro Algardi, made in 1653. It depicts The Miracle of St Agnes' Hair. The tabernacle by the high altar is from 1123.

The altar of St Agnes is by Rainaldi, with a statue by Ercole Ferrata. It shows her amid flames, a representation of the fire of temptation. Ferrata has also made the statue at the altar of St. Emerentiana, Agnes' milk-sister (daughter of her wet-nurse), who was stoned while praying at Agnes' tomb.

At the altar of St Eustace, sculpture shows the saint exposed to lions. A statue of St Sebastian at his altar is a Roman statue that has been reworked by Paolo Campi.

To the right of St Sebastian's altar is a door leading to a chapel. There, the head of St Agnes is venerated.

A door on the left side of the same altar leads to the baptistery where St Francesca Romana was baptized.

Roman ruins

Below the church there are Roman ruins, including the ruins of the brothel where St Agnes was martyred. Legend claimed that there was a tunnel from these ruins leading to the catacombs of St Agnes on the Via Nomentana; no such tunnel has been found, and it seems very unlikely that one has existed. The ruins can be entered through a door to the right of her altar. It may be locked, but the sacristan will normally open it for you.

Bibliography

• Bonelli, Renato. '"Borromini Today": In the 400th Anniversary of His Birth, 1599: Sant'Agnese in Agone, Roma" article published in: L'Architettura V. 45 No. 523 (May 1999) P. 319-30
• "Church of St. Agnes, Rome, Italy" article published in: American Architect: The Architectural Review, 1922 Dec. 6, v. 122
• Huemer, Frances. "Borromini and Michelangelo, II: Some Preliminary Thoughts on Sant'Agnese in Piazza Navona", Article published in: Source (New York, NY) 2001, v. 20, no. 4, summer, p. 12-22
• Sciubba, S. Sant’ Agnese in Agone. Roma: Marietti, 1962. 116 p.

External links

Official diocesan web-page

Italian Wikipedia page

Church's website

Template:Commons