View source for Santa Maria in Ara Coeli

{{Short description|Roman Catholic basilica, a landmark of Rome, Italy}}
{{Infobox church
|name=Basilica of Saint Mary of the Altar in Heaven
|native_name={{unbulleted list|{{native name|it|Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracœli}}|{{native name|la|Basilica Sanctae Mariae de Ara Cœli}}}}
|image=Santa Maria in Aracoeli (Rome) - Facade.jpg
|caption=Façade of the Basilica with the Ara Coeli.
|location=Scala dell'Arce Capitolina 12, [[Rome]]
|country=Italy
|tradition=[[Latin Church]]
|religious order=[[Order of Friars Minor|Franciscan Friars Minor]]
|status=[[Minor basilica]]<br>[[Titular church]]<br>[[Conventual church]]<br>[[Regional church]]
|coordinates={{coord|format=dms|display=it}}
|image_size=270
|mapframe-frame-width=270
|mapframe=yes
|mapframe-caption=Click on the map for a fullscreen view
|mapframe-zoom=13
|mapframe-marker=religious-christian
|mapframe-wikidata=yes
|denomination=[[Catholic Church|Catholic]]
|founded date=7th century
|dedication=[[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]] [[Queen of Heaven]]
|cult=[[Santo Bambino of Aracoeli]]
|relics=* [[Helena, mother of Constantine|Saint Helena]]
* [[Juniper (friar)|Brother Juniper]]
|cardinal protector=[[Salvatore De Giorgi]]
|style=[[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]], [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]]
|completed date=12th century
|length={{convert|80|m|ft}}
|width={{convert|45|m|ft}}
|width nave={{convert|20|m|ft}}
|website= [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721222017/http://www.vicariatusurbis.org/Ente.asp?ID=887 Official Website]
}}

The '''Basilica of Saint Mary of the Altar in Heaven''' ({{langx|la|Basilica Sanctae Mariae de Ara Cœli in Capitolio}}, {{langx|it|Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara Cœli al Campidoglio}}) is a [[Titular church|titular]] [[basilica]] and [[conventual church]] of the [[Order of Friars Minor|Franciscan]] [[Convent of Aracoeli]] located the highest summit of the [[Capitoline Hill]] in [[churches of Rome|Rome]], [[Italy]]. From 1250–1798 it was the headquarters of the General Curia of the [[Order of Friars Minor]] as well as being one of the city's principal civic churches. It is still the designated church of the city council of Rome, which uses the ancient title of ''[[SPQR|Senatus Populusque Romanus]]''. The present [[cardinal priest]] of the ''Titulus Sanctae Mariae de Aracoeli'' is [[Salvatore De Giorgi]].

The shrine is known for housing relics belonging to [[Helena (empress)|Helena]], mother of [[Emperor Constantine]], various minor relics from the [[Holy Sepulchre]], both the pontifically crowned images of ''Nostra Signora di Mano di Oro di Aracoeli'' (1636) on the high altar and the [[Santo Bambino of Aracoeli]] (1897). It is also famous for the exquisite [[Pinturicchio]] frescos in the [[Bufalini Chapel]] on the right hand side of the west doors.

==History==
[[Image:Rom, Basilika Santa Maria in in Aracoeli, Innenansicht.jpg|thumb|upright|Interior of the church.]]
[[Image:Cavallini fresco - Aracoeli - antmoose - cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Fresco of ''Madonna and the Child'' by [[Pietro Cavallini]].]]
The church stands on the [[Arx (Roman)|Arx]], the northern of the two peaks of the Capitoline hill, at an elevation of c. 48 m above sea level.<ref name=Claridge>A. Claridge, [https://archive.org/details/romeoxfordarchae0000clar_d1w9/page/258/ ''Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide''], Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 1998, pp. 260-264, 273.</ref> In antiquity, this was the site of the [[Temple of Juno Moneta]], but no remains of the temple have been certainly identified, and its precise location is a subject of debate.<ref>L. Richardson, Jr., [https://archive.org/details/newtopographical0000rich/page/215/ ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome''], Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, p. 215, s.v. Iuno Moneta, Aedes; P. J. Aicher, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t6m9g5G8Z1YC&pg=PA66 ''Rome Alive: A Source-Guide to the Ancient City'', Volume I], Wauconda, Ill.: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004, p. 60.</ref> The ancient walls discovered in the cellars beneath the church appear to belong chiefly to shops and houses,<ref name=Claridge/> and some scholars have argued that temple itself was situated in the garden to the southeast of the church, where other walls of tufa and concrete are visible.<ref>G. Giannelli, "Il tempio di Giunone Moneta e la casa di Marco Manlio Capitolino", ''Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma'' 87 (1980-1981), pp. 7-36. {{JSTOR|44514841}}; F. Coarelli, ''Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide'', trans. J. J. Clauss and D. P. Harmon, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007, p. 40.</ref>

The foundation of the church was laid on the site of a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] abbey mentioned in 574. Many buildings were built around the first church; in the upper part they gave rise to a cloister, while on the slopes of the hill a little quarter and a market grew up. Remains of these buildings - such as the little church of San Biagio de Mercato and the underlying "[[Insula Romana (Capitoline Hill)|Insula Romana]]") - were discovered in the 1930s.
At first the church followed the Greek rite, a sign of the power of the Byzantine exarch. Taken over by the papacy by the 9th century, the church was given first to the [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictines]], then, by papal bull to the [[Franciscan]]s in 1249–1250;<ref name=Lang>[https://depts.washington.edu/hrome/Authors/plang/Aracoeli/pub_zbarticle_view_printable.html Lang, Peter. "Santa Maria in Aracoeli", University of Washington]</ref> under the Franciscans it received its [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]]-[[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] aspect. The arches that divide the [[nave]] from the aisles are supported on columns, no two precisely alike, scavenged from Roman ruins.
 [[Image:Aracoeli2b.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Ceiling.]]

Originally the church was named ''Sancta Maria in Capitolio'', since it was sited on the [[Capitoline Hill]] (Campidoglio, in [[Italian language|Italian]]) of Ancient Rome; by the 14th century it had been renamed. A medieval legend included in the mid-12th-century guide to [[Rome]], ''[[Mirabilia Urbis Romae]]'', claimed that the church was built over an [[Caesar Augustus|Augustan]] ''Ara primogeniti Dei'', in the place where the [[Tiburtine Sibyl]] prophesied to Augustus the coming of the [[Christ]]. "For this reason the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar".<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/Lanciani/LANPAC/1*.html Rodolfo Lanciani, ''Pagan and Christian Rome'', ch 1 "The Transformation of Rome from a Pagan to a Christian City"]</ref> Its name originates from a legend according to which a sibyl predicted the coming of the son of God to Augustus by saying: "Haec est ara Filii Dei" (This is the altar of the son of God): hence the name Ara Coeli.<ref name=turismo>[https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/basilica-santa-maria-aracoeli "The Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli", Turismo Roma, Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department]</ref>

During the Middle Ages, this church became the centre of the religious and civil life of the city. It was here in 1341 that [[Petrarch]] was proclaimed [[Poet laureate]].<ref>Plumb, J. H., ''The Italian Renaissance'', Houghton Mifflin, 2001, p. 164 {{ISBN| 0-618-12738-0}}</ref> During the republican experience of the 14th century, when self-proclaimed Tribune and reviver of the Roman Republic [[Cola di Rienzo]] inaugurated the monumental stairway of 124 steps in front of the church, designed in 1348 by Simone Andreozzi, on the occasion of the [[Black Death]]. Condemned criminals were executed at the foot of the steps; there Cola di Rienzo met his death, near the spot where his statue commemorates him.
[[File:Aracoeli-fachada.jpg|thumb|Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. The Vittoriano can be seen on the left.]]
[[File:Eckersberg_Marmortrappen_som_fører_op_til_S._Maria_in_Aracoeli_1816.jpg|thumb|Same view as above in 1816.]]
In 1571, Santa Maria in Aracoeli hosted the celebrations honoring [[Marcantonio Colonna]] after the victorious [[Battle of Lepanto (1571)|Battle of Lepanto]] over the Turkish fleet. Marking this occasion, the compartmented ceiling was gilded and painted (finished 1575), to thank the Blessed Virgin for the victory. In 1797, during the French occupation and the [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]], the basilica was deconsecrated and turned into a stable. It was almost demolished in the 1880s during the construction of the nearby [[Victor Emmanuel II Monument|Vittoriano]].<ref name=turismo/>

==Exterior==
[[Image:Aracoeli8.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Central fresco by Pinturicchio in the [[Bufalini Chapel]] (1486).]]
The original unfinished façade lost the mosaics and subsequent frescoes that originally decorated it, save a mosaic in the [[tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]] of the main door, one of three doors that were later additions. The gothic window is the primary detail that tourists observe from the bottom of the stairs; it is the only authentically Gothic detail of the basilica.

==Interior==
The basilica is built as a nave and two aisles that are divided by Roman columns, which were taken from diverse antique monuments and are all different.<ref name=Lang/> Among its numerous treasures are [[Pinturicchio]]'s 15th-century frescoes depicting the life of Saint [[Bernardino of Siena]] in the [[Bufalini Chapel]], the first chapel on the right. Other features are the wooden ceiling, the inlaid [[cosmatesque]] floor, a ''Transfiguration'' painted on wood by [[Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta]], and works by other artists like [[Pietro Cavallini]] (of his frescoes only one survives), [[Benozzo Gozzoli]], and [[Giulio Romano]].
 
[[File:MADONNA OF THE GOLDEN HANDS, VENERATED AT SANTA MARIA IN ARACOELI.jpg|thumb|upright|''Madonna Aracoeli'', the primary icon of the basilica]]
It also houses the ''Madonna Aracoeli'' (Our Lady of the Golden Hands), a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] icon of the 10-11th century, in the [[altar]]. This Marian image was Pontifically [[Canonical coronation|crowned]] on 29 March 1636 by [[Pope Urban VIII]]. [[Pope Pius XII]] [[Consecration and entrustment to Mary|consecrated]] the people of Rome to the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Most Blessed Virgin Mary]] and her [[Immaculate Heart of Mary|Immaculate Heart]] in front of this image on 30 May 1948. In the [[transept]] there is a sepulchral monument by [[Arnolfo di Cambio]].

The church was also famous in Rome for the wooden statue of the [[Santo Bambino of Aracoeli]], carved in the 15th century of olive wood from the [[Gethsemane|Garden of Gethsemane]] and covered with valuable ''[[ex-voto]]s''. Many Romans believed in the spiritual efficacy of devotion to this statue. The [[France|French]] took the statue in 1797, it was then recovered, and then stolen again in February 1994. A copy was made from wood from [[Gethsemane]],<ref>Ingrid D. Rowland (2012) Anachronic Renaissance, Konsthistorisk tidskrift/
Journal of Art History, 81:3, 172–177, DOI: 10.1080/00233609.2012.706234</ref> which copy is presently displayed in its own chapel near the sacristy. At midnight Mass on [[Christmas Eve]] the image is brought out to a throne before the high altar and unveiled at the ''[[Gloria in Excelsis Deo|Gloria]]''. Until [[Epiphany (Christian)|Epiphany]] the bejeweled image resides in the Nativity crib in the left nave of the basilica.

The relics of [[Helena of Constantinople|Helena]], mother of [[Constantine the Great]], are housed in the basilica, as is the tablet with the [[christogram|monogram of Jesus]] that [[Bernardino of Siena]] used to promote [[Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus|devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus]].

==Burials==
{{Category see also|Burials at Santa Maria in Ara Coeli}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| total_width       = 200
| image_style       = border:none;
| image1            = Tomb of Queen Catherine of Bosnia.jpg
| alt1              = Tomb of Queen Catherine of Bosnia
| caption1          = The [[ledger stone]] of Queen [[Catherine of Bosnia]].
| image2            = Santa Maria in Aracoeli; Grabmal Giovanna Aldobrandeschi.JPG
| alt2              = Tomb of Honorius IV
| caption2          = The tomb of Honorius IV.
}}
* [[Catherine of Bosnia]], Bosnian Queen<ref>Regan, Krešimir. ''Bosanska kraljica Katarina'', Breza, 2010, p. 60 {{ISBN| 978-9537036553}}</ref>
* [[Pope Honorius IV]], son of Luca Savelli
* [[Juniper (friar)|Brother Juniper]], one of the original followers of Saint Francis of Assisi
* [[Giulio Salvadori]], the poet<ref>M. Gianturco, ''Giulio Salvadori'' (Milan, 1930)</ref>
* [[Luca Savelli]], right transept, left side
* Giovanna Aldobransdeschi dei Conti di Santa Fiora, wife of Luca Savelli, right transept, right side
* Cardinal [[Matteo d'Acquasparta]]<ref>Lorenzo Cardella, ''Memorie de' Cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa'' (Rome 1793), p. 30.</ref>
* Carlo Crivelli, Archdeacon of Acquilea, sculpted by [[Donatello]]<ref name=turismo/>
* Cardinal [[Louis d'Albret]] (Lodovico Lebretto)
* Fillipo Della Valle, fifth chapel on left
* Cardinal [[Giovanni Battista Savelli]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=sQoNAQAAIAAJ Renascence: The Sculptured Tombs of the Fifteenth Century in Rome], by Gerald Stanley Davies, page 250.</ref>
* Cardinal Pietro di Vicenti, passage to side door
* [[Pietro Della Valle]], Italian traveler, and Sitti Maani, his wife from Baghdad
* [[Federico di Sanseverino]] Cardinal (d. 1516)

== List of Cardianal-Priests ==
* [[Cristoforo Numai]] [[Order of Friars Minor|OFMObs]] (1517–1527)
* ''Title suspended'' (1527–1544)
* [[Francisco Mendoza de Bobadilla]] (1545–1550)
* [[Giovanni Michele Saraceni]] (1551–1557)
* [[Clemente d'Olera]] OFMObs (1557–1568)
* [[Alessandro Crivelli]] (1570–1574)
* [[Alessandro Riario]] (1578–1585)
* [[Giovanni Battista Castrucci]] (1586–1592)
* [[Francesco Maria Bourbon del Monte]] (1592–1611)
* [[Agostino Galamini]] [[Dominican Order|OP]] (1611–1639)
* [[Ascanio Filomarino]] (1642–1666)
* [[Carlo Roberti de' Vittori]] (1667–1673)
* Giacomo Franzoni (1673–1685)
* [[Giacomo de Angelis]] (1686–1695)
* [[Giovanni Francesco Negroni]] (1696–1713)
* [[Giovanni Battista Bussi (1656–1726)|Giovanni Battista Bussi]] (1713–1726)
* [[Lorenzo Cozza]] OFMObs (1727–1729)
* [[Alamanno Salviati]] (1730–1733)
* Marcello Passari (1733–1741)
* Carlo Leopoldo Calcagnini (1743–1746)
* [[Clemens XIII|Carlo Rezzonico]] (1747–1755), later Pope Clemens XIII.
* Luigi Mattei (1756–1758)
* [[Johann Theodor von Bayern]] (1759–1761)
* [[Baldassare Cenci (iuniore)|Baldassare Cenci]] (1762–1763)
* Niccolò Oddi (1766–1767)
* [[Vitaliano Borromeo (cardinal)|Vitaliano Borromeo]] (1768–1783)
* [[Innocenzo Conti]] (1783–1785)
* [[Alessandro Mattei]] (1786–1800)
* [[Francesco Maria Locatelli]] (1803–1811)
* ''vacant'' (1811–1816)
* Giovanni Battista Quarantotti (1816–1820)
* [[Fabrizio Turriozzi]] (1823–1826)
* [[Giacomo Filippo Fransoni]] (1828–1855)
* Francesco Gaude OP (1855–1857)
* Giuseppe Milesi Pironi Ferretti (1858–1870)
* ''vacant'' (1870–1874)
* [[Maximilian Joseph von Tarnóczy]] (1874–1876)
* [[Mieczyslaw Halka Ledóchowski]] (1876–1896)
* [[Francesco Satolli]] (1896–1903)
* [[Beniamino Cavicchioni]] (1903–1911)
* [[Diomede Falconio]] [[Order of Friars Minor|OFM]] (1911–1914)
* [[Basilio Pompili]] (1914–1917)
* [[Filippo Camassei]] (1919–1921)
* [[Juan Benlloch y Vivó]] (1921–1926)
* [[Jozef-Ernest van Roey]] (1927–1961)
* [[Juan Landázuri Ricketts]] OFM (1962–1997)
* [[Salvatore De Giorgi]] (since 1998) <ref>[https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d1m28.html Catholic Hierarchy]</ref>

==Curiosities==
*The church also contains the marble tomb of [[Cecchino Bracci]], pupil of artist [[Michelangelo]] who had dedicated a number of poems in his name. The tomb's design (not the carving) is by Michelangelo. 
*A part of the last mission of the game ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' takes place in this basilica, which the Assassins discover has been built on top of an ancient Isu temple.
*In this church, football player [[Francesco Totti]] and Ilary Blasi celebrated their marriage in 2005, followed by thousands of fans.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://heavy.com/sports/2017/05/francesco-totti-wife-ilary-blasi/ |title=Ilary Blasi, Francesco Totti's Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know |last=Farrell |first=Paul |date=27 May 2017 |access-date=29 May 2018 |work=[[Heavy.com]]}}</ref>
*It was this church where Edward Gibbon was struck with the idea to write his ''[[Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]''. "It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764," he wrote in his "Autobiography", "as I sat musing amid the ruins of the capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter [Gibbon was mistaken; this church was actually the former Temple of Juno Moneta], that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.” <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catholicunderthehood.com/category/italian-history/|title = Italian History}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Churches of Rome]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Johanna Elfriede Louise Heideman, ''The cinquecento chapel decorations in S. Maria in Aracoeli in Rome'', Academische Pers, 1982.

==External links==
* [http://www.italycyberguide.com/Geography/cities/rome2000/E132.htm Riccardo Cigola, "Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli"]
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/Lanciani/LANPAC/1*.html Rodolfo Lanciani, ''Pagan and Christian Rome'', ch 1 "The Transformation of Rome from a Pagan to a Christian City"]

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{{Churches in the City of Rome}}
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| prev = [[Santa Maria in Domnica]]
| list = Landmarks of Rome
| curr = Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
| next = [[Santa Maria del Popolo]]
}}
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{{Monuments of Rome}}
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[[Category:6th-century establishments in Italy]]
[[Category:Basilica churches in Rome]]
[[Category:Titular churches]]
[[Category:6th-century churches]]
[[Category:Burial places of popes]]
[[Category:Churches of Rome (rione Campitelli)]]
[[Category:Capitoline Hill]]
[[Category:Helena, mother of Constantine I]]