Santa Maria della Conchezione: Capuchin Church in Rome

Against the backdrop of world-famous Roman beauties, the Church of the Capucian monks of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini looks rather modest - at least from the outside. With all this, it is consistently among the ten most frequently visited churches in the Italian capital. Mainly because of the crypt, the church is not a place for the faint of heart ...

Residents of Rome say that everyone who has ever thought about the meaning of life and death should visit the Church of Santa Maria della Concezione on Via Veneto. However, there are probably no people in the world who have not been visited by such thoughts. Therefore, people from all over the world come to visit this house of prayer in the Baroque style.
The Church of Santa Maria della Conchezione owes its appearance to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, a former member of the Catholic Capuchin Order. The creation of the project of the future temple was entrusted to the architect Antonio Cazoni. The construction of the temple lasted from 1626 to 1631 and was documented in detail at all stages. October 4, 1631, the day of the memory of the saint Francis, Pope Urban VIII consecrated the temple.
The church, which has several chapels with the relics of the revered saints and the burials of prominent figures of the order, was adorned with the works of the great painters of his era - Caravaggio, who painted Saint Francis, Guido Reni, who owns the image of the Archangel Michael, as well as Domenichino and Pietro da Cortona.
After the completion of the construction of the church, the remains of monks from the old cemetery of the Capucians, located in the area of the Trevi fountain, were transferred to its underground part - the crypt. The bones of the Capuchins, who departed to the Lord God in a later period, eventually also ended up here. In total, in five rooms of the crypt, there are bones and skulls of more than four thousand people who died in the period from 1528 to 1870. The use of this unusual material for the design of the crypt began in 1732.
The walls and vaults of the crypt are lined with human bones in the form of bizarre patterns. Here you can see lamps made of vertebrae, alcoves of skulls, inside which are skeletons in monastic vestments. One of the skeletons belongs to a two-year-old girl - Princess Barberini, niece of Pope Sixtus V. The floor of the dungeon is covered with soil brought from the Holy Land.
churches fascinate 'align =' left 'hspace = 10> It should be noted that the creators of the interior of the crypt did not pursue the goal of scaring future visitors of this place at all. They perceived death as a transition from temporary, earthly life to eternal life, and suggested that everyone think about it who enters under these vaults.In one of the rooms of the crypt you can read the inscription in Latin: Una volta che abbiamo che ora - tu. Un giorno vi sarà il fatto che ora - noi, which means: “Once we were what now you are. Someday you will become what we are now. '
It should be added that it was the interior of the crypt of this Roman church that inspired the creators of the famous Gothic Church of All Saints or Ossuary, located in the Czech Sedlec.
Yet the Church of Santa Maria della Concezione is not only a crypt. The entrance to the temple is a door with a triangular pediment with two windows on the sides. It is located in the middle of the main facade, made in two tiers and partially covered with travertine.
The church, like other temples of the Capuchin Order, has one nave, on either side of which there are five aisles. The vault of the Church of Santa Maria della Concezione was painted in 1796 by the painter Liborio Cocceti, of whose works the fresco of the Assumption of the Mother of God is a true masterpiece.
The central altar of the church with columns on the sides is made of marble at the expense of allocated by Pope Urban VIII. In front of the altar is the burial place of the founder of the church - Cardinal Antonio Barberini, on whose tombstone, according to the will of the deceased, is carved: Hic iacet pulvis cinis et nihil - 'Here rests ashes, ashes and nothing else.'
Since 2012, the Capuchin Museum has been operating on the territory of the Roman Church of Santa Maria della Conchezione. Its exposition, located in seven halls, visually acquaints visitors with the history, life and some of the secrets of one of the most mysterious monastic orders in the Catholic Church.

You can write a letter to God or light a candle in the temple .