Santa Maria dell' Anima is the German national church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Souls in Purgatory and located on the Via Santa Maria dell'Anima 64 in the rione Ponte. Pictures of the church on Wikipedia Commons. [1] There is an English Wikipedia article. [2]
History
The remote origins of the church lie in a private hospice for Dutch pilgrims founded by a married couple from Dordrechtin the Netherlands, Jan and Katharina Peeters, after the Holy Year of 1350. They called it Hospitium Beatae Mariae Animarum (Guest-House of Blessed Mary of Souls), and it proved a complete success. in 1386 it was established on the present site, and in 1399 It received papal approval. In 1406 Pope Innocent VIIbrought it under immediate papal jurisdiction, declared it to be the national institution for expatriates and pilgrims from the Holy Roman Empire and established a confraternity to run it. Back then, there was no nationalist distinction between the Germans (as now understood), the Dutch and the Austrians but all were counted as Germans. There was not even a recognized standard for the German language -that came with Luther in the 16th century.
in 1431 a full-sized church was built to replace the former small chapel, which was made possible because of a large legacy provided by the famous German mediaeval historian Diedrich of Niem. However Johann Burchard, a priest and noted chronicler from Alsace (then part of the Empire and fully German) joined the Confraternità di Santa Maria dell'Anima and became its head. Under his influence it was decided to demolish this church, newly completed, and rebuild it for the Jubilee of 1500 declared by Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503).
The confraternity raised the funds by appeals in the Empire, and started work in 1499. However, the work was only finished at the consecration in 1543. The architect may have been Andrea Sansovino, and he was certainly consulted. The influence of Donato Bramante is also claimed as regards the windows, but not documented. The façade was possibly by Giuliano da Salgallo, although this has been disputed.
When the House of Habsburg, with their power base in Austria, became hereditary Emperors from the 16th century the Confraternity became regarded as an outpost of the Imperial establishment at Vienna. So, when the French occupied Rome in 1795 during the Revolutionary Wars they sacked and desecrated the church, turning the complex into a cavalry barracks. After the definitive restoration of Papal government in 1815, trouble began over the exact national identity of the restored church. It was restored again in 1843, but the following year the Belgian Flemish expatriates abandoned it for San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi. The confraternity was renamed the Collegio Teutonico di Santa Maria dell'Anima as a nationalist gesture to the Germans, and it still exists under this title. The Dutch finally abandoned the church in 1939 because nationalist disputes between them and the Germans had become intolerable.
Exterior
The church is built as a Hallenkirche or hall church, an architectural type common in northern Europe and apparently chosen in the 1500 rebuilding as a nationalist statement. This is built to be as wide as possible,
Note false top of façade.
with a lofty roof held up by two rows of columns and with all the windows in the main side walls instead of above the arcades as in a basilica. (Churches of this type often doubled as municipal assemblies and, in some cases, trading halls.) However, here each side aisle is divided into four enclosed chapels, which is unusual for a hall church.
The exterior walls are in yellow brick, with architectural details in white limestone. As a result of the overall design, the nave and aisles shelter under one wide pitched and tiled roof. On the far right hand corner of this is attached the campanile, at an angle to the main axis of the church so that one side faces the wall of Santa Maria della Pace on the other side of the narrow street there. A square tower in yellow brick, it has a very deep cornice both above and below the bellchamber. The latter has two pairs of brick Ionic pilasters on each corner, holding up a stone entablature below the upper cornice, and the soundholes are two narrow double arches separated by a thin column and with a little round window above each pair. Unusually for Rome, there is a spire. This sits on four gables, has a crocket at each corner and is conical with the tip truncated. It is covered in polychrome tilework arranged geometrically in an Austrian idiom (the style is known in Italy as a squame), and has a ball finial with a bronze Habsburg double-headed eagle sitting on top. The last is 19th century.
The three-storey rectangular façade is rather simple, and the top storey is actually false (a look from an oblique angle down the street will reveal this). It is often, but probably erroneously, attributed to Sangallo. Recently, scholars have attributed the three doors to Sansovino, including the sculpture, while earlier studies have attributed them to Peruzzi. The windows may be the work of Bramante.
The first storey has stone Corinthian pilasters on each corner. A pair of narrower pilasters are placed near these, and another pair is between the three entrance doors. These pilasters support an entablature with a deep dentillate cornice and a frieze bearing a dedicatory inscription: Templum Beatae Mariae de anima hospitalis teutonicorum MDXIIII (Temple of Blessed Mary of the soul and of the hospice of the Germans 1514). The three entrances are flanked by half-round Corinthian columns, and the side pair are smaller than the main one. The former have blank segmental pediments, whereas the latter has a triangular pediment the tip of which touches the architrave. It contains a copy relief carving of Our Lady flanked by two souls in Purgatory (the original is now kept in the sacristy). Below this is an inscription Speciosa facta es (you were made beautiful).
The second storey has pilasters and entablature in the same style as the first storey. In between them are three very large round-headed windows, the middle one being slightly larger than the other two. Their frames are stone arches without imposts. The cornice of this storey continues along the rooflines of the side walls.
The third, lower storey has the pilaster motif repeated. It has a horizontal top, concealing the roof gable. The central round window is in the top of the latter. A pair of sculptures flanks it.
Interior
The interior is actually trapezoidal, since the church had to be fitted into a constricted pre-existing street plan.
The interior surfaces are richly decorated, including the painted main barrel-vaulted ceiling, and this decoration and the stained glass is of 1875-82 by Ludovico Seitz. There is an attached apse with an ornate gilded stucco ceiling patterned geometrically, and this is lit by an oddly-shaped stained glass window over the high altar, like a vertical drug capsule. The decoration of this presbyterium is 18th century, by Paolo Posi.
By the entrance are the tombs of Cardinal Andreas of Austria on the left side and Willem Cardinal van Enchenvoirt (died 1534) on the right side. Cardinal Van Enchenvoirt was Baldassare Peruzzi 's patron, and commissioned the tomb of Pope Adrian VI (see below), the Chapel of St Barbara and the high altar.
The eight side chapels are, going anticlockwise from bottom right: St Benno of Meissen, St Anne, St Mark (the Fugger Chapel), the Chapel of the Pietà, the Chapel of the Cross (the Margrave Chapel), St Barbara, St John Nepomucene and St Lambert of Liege. Architecturally these chapels have the forms of tall semi-cylinders.
The first chapel on the left is dedicated to St Lambert, and has an altarpiece by Carlo Saraceni of 1618 showing the saint being martyred at the altar of his church at Liege. The first one on the right is dedicated to St Benno of Meissen, and the altarpiece is by the same artist. The saint was bishop of Meissen during the Investiture Controversy, and threw the keys of the cathedral into the river to prevent Emperor Henry IVfrom entering it. A miracle then occurred, depicted here, by which a fisherman caught a fish which had swallowed the key and was able to return them.
The second chapel on the left, dedicated to St John Nepomucene, has two notable monuments by Ercole Ferrata, a pupil of Bernini.
The third chapel on the right, the Fugger Chapel, was decorated by Sermoneta.
Francesco Salviati (proper name Francesco de'Rossi) painted the Deposition from the Cross in the fourth chapel on the left, the Marburg Chapel, in about 1560. It was one of his last commissions, and he also executed the chapel frescoes which are inspired by the ancient ones at the Domus Aurea.
In the last chapel on the right is the copy by Lorinzetto of Michelangelo's Pietà. It is not an exact copy, as the artist has made a few changes such as the position of Christ's head. It was made in 1530, and was intended for the high altar. It has a spectacular red jasper surround.
The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament has a 16th century crucifix. There is also a reproduction of the Madonna of Altötting, given by Pope Pius XII.
Above the high altar is a damaged canvas of the Holy Family and Saints by Giulio Romano , painted in 1522 and considered one of his best works. There are tombs on either side of the sanctuary. Pope Adrian VI (1522-1523), who was born in Utrecht, is buried on the right side, in a tomb designed by Baldassare Peruzzi and with sculptures by Michelangelo Senese and Niccolò Tribolo. This was commissioned by Cardinal can Enchenvoirt. The pope is depicted as if he were lying down, a portrayal known as gisant and the latest example for a papal tomb in Rome.
The sacristy was decorated by Paolo Martuscelli in 1635.
The church has an idyllic little garden courtyard containing fragments of ancient sculpture, including a finely carved sarcophagus depicting the god Apollo.
Special notes
The church normally has its doors closed, but it is possible to visit it. Go through the alley on the right, and ask for permission to enter the church at the entrance to the college behind the church.
Mass is said here on weekdays at 18:00, and on Sundays at 10:00. It is in German, of course.