Santa Maria della Concezione delle Viperesche is the 17th century church of a former convent of oblate nuns on the north side of Via San Vito, west of the Arch of Gallienus and very near Santi Vito e Modesto in the rione Esquilino.
It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception.
History[]
The convent had been established by one Livia Vipereschi in 1668, hence the strange name. It was attached to a college for poor girls and orphans, which survived the suppression of convents in the city in 1873 but was closed in the late 20th century.
The foundation was originally for a female lay confraternity, but this quickly became a new sisterhood of Carmelite Oblate Tertiaries.
The premises are now occupied by a new female religious society known as the Pie Discepole del Redentore, which runs the premises as a university hostel.
Appearance[]
This church is very small, on a simple rectangular plan. It forms part of the main convent building.
There is a small rectangular façade framed by two thin square Doric pilasters supporting a protruding architrave. There was a vertical rectangular window either side of the door, and a horizontal one above. Between this and the door lintel was an oval tondo containing a representation of Our Lady. The façade survives, although the picture does not. The Pie Discepole have placed a modern ceramic depiction of the Immaculate Conception in the tondo as a replacement, and this has the date 1909.
A 19th century depiction of the Immaculate Conception survives as the altarpiece.