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Santa Sabina all'Aventino is a palaeo-Christian church on the Aventine hill dedicated to St Sabina, a legendary 2nd century martyr. It is attached to the General Curia or headquarters of the Dominican order, and has the dignity of a minor basilica. The postal address is Piazza Pietro d'Illiria 1, and it is in the rione Ripa. More pictures of the church at Wikimedia Commons. [1] There is an English Wikipedia article. [2]
History
Foundation
The church was built in the 5th century, presumably although unprovably on the site of the original Titulus Sabinae. The tituli were the first parish churches in Rome, and most of them were originally private residences in which Christian congregations met (the so-called house-churches). In the 1st century the Aventine hill was a wealthy neighbourhood with several important temples and homes of patricians (rather like its status nowadays). The inference is that Sabina was a rich believer with a house in the most exclusive part of the neigbourhood, on the crest of the hill overlooking the river. It is known that there was a temple of Juno very close by.
In the early Middle Ages a fictional legend was concocted which described St Sabina as having been martyred in the year 114 at a place in Umbria called Vindena which is now Rocca San Zenone. She was allegedly denounced by one of her slaves called Serapia, and her relics brought to the new basilica in the 5th century which was on the site of her town house at Rome. This story must refer to a completely different person, so the revised Roman martyrology has rejected it and describes St Sabina merely as the original founder of the church. However, the first dedication of the basilica was to SS Sabina and Serapia, and the latter may have been associated with the early house church also.
The year of the erection of the basilica is believed to be 425 , and it is known that it was founded by an Illyrian priest named Peter (Illyria corresponded roughly to the former Yugoslavia). We are fortunate in having the original foundation epigraph in mosaic on the counterfaçade above the entrance door, which reads:
CULMEN APOSTOLICUM CUM COELESTINUS HABERET, PRIMUS ET IN TOTO FULGERET EPISCOPUS ORBE, HAEC QUAE MIRARIS FUNDAVIT PRESBYTER URBIS ILLYRICA DE GENTE PETRUS, VIR NOMINE TANTO DIGNUS AD EXORTU CHRISTI, NUTRITUS IN AULA PAUPERIBUS LOCUPLES SIBI PAUPER QUI BONA VITAE PRAESENTIS FUGIENS MERUIT SPERARE FUTURAM.
(When Celestine had the apostolic summit, and shone out in the whole world as the first bishop, Peter a priest of the city, from the people of Illyria, founded this [church] which you admire, a man worthy of the name at the [second] coming of Christ, who nourished poor people at [his] house [and hence obtained spiritual] riches for himself a poor man, who fleeing the good things of this present life deserved to hope for the future.)
Unfortunately there is no date. The reference to Illyria has led to rather unconvincing attempts to discern Illyrian influence in the basilica's architecture and decoration. The Celestine referred to is Pope Celestine I. The building took eight years to complete, and was consecrated under Pope Sixtus III about the year 432.
Middle Ages
The first recorded restoration was under Pope Leo III at the end of the 9th century, continued by Pope Gregory II about a quarter of a century later. About this time the depopulation of the city had taken place, and the Aventine was abandoned as a residential area. The basilica was incorporated into a castle or fort guarding the access by river to the city, and in the Middle Ages this stronghold had fallen into the possession of a noble family known as the Savelli. They restored the basilica in 1216.
However, in 1218 the church was given to the Dominicans by Pope Honorius III, who had approved the foundation of the order and who belonged to the family. They built a monastery to the west and have served the church ever since; they now have their headquarters there, although since 1370 Santa Maria sopra Minerva has been their main church in Rome. The Savelli family palace was next to the church on the east side, where the park now is; remains of it can be seen from the Clivo di Rocca Savella.
St Dominic lived in the adjacent monastery for a period soon before his death in 1221. Among other famous residents of the monastery were St Thomas Aquinas, Pope St Pius V and St Hyacinth who made his vows here.
By the end of the Middle Ages, the Aventine was entirely rural, occupied by farms, vineyards and hay-fields for fodder for the horses of the nobility. The only substantial buildings were the six great fortress-monasteries which dominated any views of the hill; apart from Santa Sabina, these were Sant'Alessio all'Aventino just to the west, Santa Maria del Priorato further along, Santa Prisca down the slope and San Saba and Santa Balbina on the Little Aventine to the south-east. This state of affairs continued until the late 19th century.
Mannerist, Baroque and Modern
In 1586, Pope Sixtus V commissioned Domenico Fontana to bring the interior of the church up to date. Guidebooks and art histories tend to be very hostile about the result ("it was disfigured"), and certainly Fontana was ruthless in destroying the basilica's mediaeval fittings. Bits of these he re-used in his Mannerist scheme, however. In the Baroque period Francesco Borromini did work from 1643, and some additions were made in the 18th century.
In the 20th century, most of these post-mediaeval alterations and additions were removed to restore the church back to what was believed to be its original state. The radical restoration took place in two phases: 1914-1919, and 1936-1938. They were led by Antonio Muñoz and P. Berthier, and were not altogether without controversy. Apart from the Elci Chapel, high-quality Baroque fittings and artworks were treated with contempt. Excavations and archeological investigations produced fragments of mediaeval fittings which were skilfully used by Muñoz to replace the nave windows and build the present presbyterium. The overall result looks convincing, but it should be remembered that the present interior aspect is a modern work.
The current titular of the church is H.E. Cardinal Jozef Tomko.
At present, the church is a popular part of the Centro Storico marriage circuit. As a result, there may be problems with visiting on weekends. The church has never been parochial, and now belongs in the parish of Santa Prisca.
Exterior
Historic approach
The original route to the church from the city is a historical monument in itself, and makes a beautiful romantic walk away from the crowds. From the Bocca della Verità, go south past the church of San Vincenzo de’Paoli all'Aventino on the other side of Via del Circo Massimo and take the first left into Clivo di Rocca Savella. This was the mediaeval driveway for the monastery and Savelli palace, and guarding the entrance used to be the chapel and hermitage of Sant’Anna a Ripa. The lane is very steep and cobbled, and has not changed in centuries. A spectacular view in the direction of the Ghetto opens up, and remains of the palace can be seen at the bend to the left. Unfortunately, it is entirely unsuitable for the infirm and disabled and can be risky in bad weather. Wheeled vehicles are not permitted.
Layout
The church looks much from the outside as it did when it was built in the 5th century and is a classic aisled basilica without a separate presbyterium or transept. There is a piazza between it and the street running parallel. The large external apse is prominent, and there are only two external side chapels. The one on the right hand side, on the piazza, is square, and on the left the Elci Chapel is octagonal. Another little semi-circular chapel occupies the end of the right hand aisle, but this now has no access from the interior. The right hand aisle has a side entrance from the piazza, and this is protected by an external loggia or porch occupying the space between the side chapel and the monastery.
Side entrance
Unusually for Roman churches, the basilica has no monumental façade or triumphal entrance. This is because the monastery, which has two cloisters north to south, is built right up against what would be the façade and continues down the side of the piazza to the street. The frontage of the monastery facing the piazza has an open loggia, and this continues as a large vaulted passage or narthex along the front of the basilica. It is the main entrance to the monastery, and the original front door of the church can be found by walking along it. It is possible to enter from the side porch, but I recommend going through the front door. The right hand aisle has its own door as well, but the left hand one has not because the passage ends in stairs there.
In a corner of the narthex is a short spirally ribbed stone column with a strange polished black stone on top shaped like a round loaf of bread. This is the lapis diaboli, and by tradition the Devil threw it at St Dominic while he was at prayer in the church and smashed the paving slab on which he was kneeling. Is it a meteorite? Most likely, it is an ancient Roman scale-weight examples of which have survived in other Roman cities.
This narthex is the surviving range of the quadriporticus (a square courtyard surrounded by colonnaded porticoes) which the monastery supplanted. There are eight surviving ancient columns of this in the narthex, four of them plain and four spirally fluted.
The Baroque campanile is attached to the near left hand corner of the nave, and is not easy to see. It replaced the Romanesque campanile provided in the early Middle Ages.
Fabric
The exterior walls are brick throughout, and there is a single pitched and tiled roof. The external apse reaches almost as high as the nave roofline, and has its own pitched roof as does the little right hand aisle apse. The aisle windows that survive are narrow arched slits, but the clerestory and apse windows are unusually large. It has been claimed that this demonstrates an Illyrian style of architecture rather than a Roman one, but the real reason is that the builders of the period were still skilled enough to provide such windows, and also walls without buttresses, without endangering the structure's stability. Compare the basilicas at Ravenna, which resemble this one. The window fenestrations are modern, courtesy of Muñoz, and the geometrically patterned transennae or glazing bars are based on fragments that he found. The panes of the are of silenite, not glass. There are thirteen of these windows on each side of the nave, three in the apse and five in a row above the entrance. These last five are only visible from the outside by looking from the rooms on the other side of the monastery's south cloister.
The Baroque campanile is a narrow rectangular slab of four storeys with two open arches in each storey (those in the second are blocked). The structure is topped by a little triumphal arch flanked by a pair of Doric pilasters on each face supporting a low pyramidal tiled cap with a damaged finial. The sides of this triumphal arch have sweeping curves leading to a pair of baluster finials.
The side loggia has two tall Corinthian stone columns supporting an arcade of three arches; the outer pilasters in brick also have Corinthian capitals. This structure was built in the 15th century.
Entrance door
This dates from between 420 and 450, and is made of cypress wood. About 10 of the original 28 panels are missing, but any wooden object from this period is a rare sight. In one of the panels with scenes from the life of Moses, God the Father is depicted as a hand extended from a cloud, the earliest way of representing Him in Christian art. The crucifixion scene in the top left-hand panel may be the earliest preserved representation of the Christ crucified between two thieves in Western art.
The panels are recognizably the work of two collaborating artists, but the decorative surrounding of vines and bunches of grapes is later. The present arrangement of the panels is confused, and may be the result of a known restoration that took place in 1836. The restorer then allegedly re-carved the face of the drowning Pharaoh to represent Napoleon.
The eighteen surviving panels have the following representations, left to right and top to bottom:
Crucifixion.
The Women at the Empty Tomb after the Resurrection.
Adoration of the Magi.
Christ with Peter and Paul, holding the Pearl of Great Price.
Christ raising Lazarus, multiplying loaves and turning water into wine.
Moses in the Desert, the Quails, the Manna and Moses striking the rock to produce water.
Ascension of Christ.
Second Coming or Triumph of Christ (meaning uncertain).
Christ appears to his disciples after the Resurrection.
Christ appears to the women after the Resurrection.
Christ predicting Peter's denial.
Prophet Habakkuk and the angel taking him to feed those in the lion's den.
Moses receiving the Law, removing his sandals, at the Burning Bush and with the sheep.
Acclamation of an important person (uncertain meaning).
Exodus of Israelites with pillar of fire, Pharaoh drowning in the Red Sea and Aaron's rod turning into a snake.
Elijah ascending into heaven and Elisha catching his cloak.
Peter washing his hands.
Christ before Caiaphas.
Monastery
Opposite the door, there is a hole in the wall. If you look through it, you can see and orange tree which is descended from one planted by St Dominic. The monastery also contains his room, which has been converted into a chapel. It is possible to see this, and the room of Pope St Pius V, on application at the monastery. Men can also apply to visit the early 13th century Romanesque main cloister, and the chapter house where St Celsus and St Hyacinth, apostles of Hungary and Bohemia, made their vows as Dominicans. The cloister has 103 columns, and has recently been restored.
Interior
Fabric
The first impression that you get when you enter the basilica is one of a huge empty space, dominated by the superb colonnaded arcades and the light flooding through the windows. The church's interior is different from most other early churches as we see them today, because of way the large windows let so much light through. This was common in ancient and early medieval churches, but we more seldom experience it today because the openings have often been walled up or the windows reduced in size. The traditional reason for this was that mediaeval people believed that less light would give better conditions for prayer and meditation. However, the real motivation was usually worries about the stability of ancient buildings. Smaller windows meant stronger walls, especially needed if an old church had its wooden ceiling or open truss roof replaced by a vault.
As mentioned, the geometric glazing bars in the windows are modern but the idea for them came from original fragments found in excavation. These are now kept in the narthex, so you can compare them with what Muñoz provided in the 1930's. The twenty-four ribbed Proconnesian marble Corinthian columns are ancient, of the 2nd century, and are a single set. The carved capitals are of exceptional quality. A good guess is that they were taken from one of the buildings on the Aventine that had fallen into disuse by the mid 5th century. The neighbourhood was probably already depopulating by the time of the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410. Specifically, Emperor Theodosius the Great had closed all the pagan temples in 395 and these columns may have come from such a redundant temple as that of Juno very near by. However the columns show little signs of re-use, and a theory has been suggested that they came unused from an imperial builders' store.
The colonnades support arcades rather than trabeations or straight architraves, and this is one of the earliest example of such a construction in Rome. The proportions of the church are based on Hellenistic principles, as described by Vitruvius. For instance, the height of the columns equal 9 1/2 times their diameter, and the space between columns equal 5 times their diameter; this is just as Vitruvius describes it.
The flat coffered wooden ceiling is a simple one, decorated with stars in gilt, and it was provided in 1938. The original basilica may not have had a ceiling at all, as was the case at San Paolo fuori le Mura before the 19th century fire there.
Wall decorations
There is no apse mosaic, which is unusual for a church of this date. It was originally decorated, as was the triumphal arch, but the mosaics are lost. They have been replaced by frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari, painted 1560, and these probably have the same motif as the lost mosaics.
Over the cypress doors, there is a mosaic showing ecclesia ex circumcision, (The Church from the Circumcision) and ecclesia ex gentibus, (The Church from the Nations). Some believe that it represents the Old and New Testaments, but it seems more likely that they are intended to represent the Christians of Jewish origins and the Christians who were converts from pagan religion. Between the two figures is a text recording the building of the church by Peter the Illyrian, who was a priest. The first line contains an assertion of the Pope's supreme and universal authority, and is an early example of such a text.
Furnishings
Below the high altar is a shrine to St Sabina and other martyrs.
The schola cantorum, or choir enclosure, dates to the ninth century. The relief on it is inspired by Persian style.
The mosaic on the tomb in the middle of the nave floor depicts a Master General of the Dominicans, probably Monoz de Zamora, who died in 1300. The mosaic has been dated to c. 1300 on stylistic grounds, so it seems likely that the identification is correct.
In the right nave is the late 15th century tomb of the Spanish Cardinal Auxias di Poggio (died 1484). The artist is unknown, but it is likely that he belonged to the school of Andrea Bregno. The inscription says: "To live after death, he lived as one who was going to die".
Side chapels
In the Cappella d'Elci, on the left side at the middle of the length of the nave, is a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary by Sassoferrato. She is flanked by St Dominic and St Catherina of Siena.
Underground
Below a grating in the floor is a room of a Roman house, which has been excavated. It might be the original Christian 'house-church' at the site, the "Title of Sabina".
Special notes
There is a shop in the monastery that sells postcards, including cards showing the panels in the front door, and religious objects and literature. It is of special interest to those interested in Dominican spirituality.
Santa Sabina is the Lenten station church on Ash Wednesday. Since the time of Pope John XXIII, it is custom for the Holy Father to assist in person in the afternoon Mass on that day, when ashes are distributed to little childrens' homes.
The advertised opening hours are 06:30 to 12:45 and 15:30 to 19:00 (as always with Roman churches, these are liable to change). If you go early in the morning, you will probably have the basilica entirely to yourself. On the other hand, if you go on a Saturday you will most likely find a wedding going on.
This is not an easy place to get to for those in a hurry. Buses do not run anywhere very near, and the quickest way is to get one of the many that go along the Via del Circo Massimo, get off at the Piazzale Ugo le Malfa and walk up the Via di Valle Murcia. From the Via Marmorata, take the Via Asino Pollione from the Largo Manlio Gelsomini, keep left and bear right at the top. There is no access of any kind to the church from the Lungotevere Aventino and Via Marmorata between this route and the Clivo di Rocca Savella near the Bocca della Verità.
External links
Roma SPQR web-page with gallery
Info.roma web-page with photo gallery and plan
"Romeartlover" web-page with 18th century engraving
"Sacred-destinations" article in English
"Sacred-destinations" large photo gallery
Armellini's History (scroll down beyond S. Prisca)
"The Anchoress" blog with photo gallery
Dartmouth College web-page with plan and photo gallery
Detailed article in English on door panels by Bill Storage
Youtube video from "Smarthistory" with English commentary
Youtube video from "tvcnroma" with Italian commentary
Ash Wednesday at Santa Sabina, celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI