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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore.
Page revised in June 2009.

To the Italian visitors of my web site

S. Pietro in Vinculis  (Book 3) (Map B3) (Day 2) (View B8) (Rione Monti)

In this page:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view (including S. Antonio Abate)
S. Pietro in Vinculis
The Cloister
S. Francesco di Paola
Torri degli Annibaldi e dei Cesarini (Case dei Borgia)

The Plate (No. 45)

S. Pietro in Vinculis

Vinculis (links, but also chains) is a reference to a miracle concerning the chains of St. Peter. In 439 Elia Eudocia, wife of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where she found several relics, including chains which had been used to bind St. Peter in Jerusalem; she sent these to her daughter Licinia Eudocia, who was the wife of Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III; eventually the chains were given to Pope Leo I who decided to keep them together with the chains used to bind St. Peter in Carcere Mamertino; at this point the two sections spontaneously joined together. In order to celebrate the miracle and to appropriately allow the devotion of the relics a church was built on this site as early as 442 by Licinia Eudocia; for this reason the church is also known as Basilica Eudossiana.
The view is taken from the green dot in the map below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Part of the monastery of S. Francesco di Paola; 2) Street leading to S. Martino ai Monti; 3) S. Pietro in Vincoli; 4) Palazzo del Cardinal Titolare. The small 1748 map shows also 5) Monastery of S. Antonio Abate; 6) Torre dei Cesarini; 7) Torre degli Annibaldi; 8) "Case dei Borgia".

Small ViewSmall View

Today

The view today
The view in June 2009

The bell tower and the adjoining monastery were pulled down at the beginning of the XXth century to leave room for a huge building which houses the Engineering Faculty of the main Rome University.

Details
(left) Palazzo del Cardinal Titolare; (centre-above) coat of arms of Cardinal Antoine de Granvelle: his motto was "durate" (stand fast); (centre-below) coat of arms and name of Cardinal Antoine de Granvelle (ANT.CAR.GRANVELANUS); portal of former Monastero di S. Antonio Abate

A minor change occurred in Palazzo del Cardinal Titolare (the residence of the titular cardinal of the church, i.e. its honorary chief) where the baroque door was replaced by a much simpler entrance.
At the far right of the plate Vasi shows a portal which led to the monastery of S. Antonio Abate; the portal is still there, but the monastery has been replaced by a complex of late XIXth century buildings.
The Renaissance portico of S. Pietro in Vincoli was designed by Meo del Caprina in 1475 for Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere; the façade was completed in 1570-78 by Cardinal Antoine de Granvelle: he was more of a statesman than a priest and he is mainly remembered for having conducted the negotiations for the marriage of Mary I of England and Philip II of Spain and for having been the de facto governor of the Netherlands (1559-64) and the viceroy of Naples (1571-75).

S. Pietro in Vinculis

S. Pietro in Vincoli
Façade

Today the church is rarely visited by pilgrims interested in St. Peter's chains, but it is a "touristic must see" because it houses the statue of Moses by Michelangelo which is part of the unfinished Monument to Pope Julius II. You may wish to see the church as it appeared in a 1588 Guide to Rome.

Details
Portico: (above-left) XVIIIth century railing; (above-right) XVIIIth century stucco; (below) decoration of the lintel showing the coats of arms of Pope Sixtus IV and of his nephew Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere

The miracle of the chains had also a political meaning: at the death of Emperor Honorius, his nephew and heir Valentinian III was a boy of four. The Western Roman Empire was ruled first by Joannes, an usurper, and then by Galla Placidia, the mother of Valentinian III. The marriage of Valentinian and Licinia Eudocia in 437 was seen as the reunion in the same family of the two parts of the Roman Empire.

Moses
Michelangelo's monument to Pope Julius II and details of the statue portraying Moses

The statue of Moses was designed for a grand monument to be placed in the centre of S. Pietro (nuovo), the new basilica which Pope Julius II decided to build on the site of the existing one. The death of the pope in 1513 stopped the completion of the monument; the new pope Leo X Medici was hostile to the Della Rovere because both families competed for the control of the Duchy of Urbino. Eventually it was Francesco Maria Della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who asked Michelangelo to rethink the design of his uncle's monument. This was completed in 1545 in S. Pietro in Vincoli; however the pope is buried in a very simple way in S. Pietro.

Bregno
Monument to Cardinal Nicolaus Krebs von Kues (Nicola Cusano) attributed to Andrea Bregno

Andrea Bregno was the leading sculptor of Rome before Michelangelo; he excelled in reliefs, in particular in very low reliefs. His monument to Cardinal Cusano in S. Pietro in Vincoli is very interesting for its polychromy. Cardinal Cusano's fields of interest were typical of a man of the Renaissance; in addition to religious treaties, he wrote about astronomy, mathematics, law and philosophy. He also played a significant political role as advisor to Popes Eugenius IV and Nicholas V.

The Cloister

The cloister
Cloister

The cloister is now inside the University buildings, but it is definitely worth a visit. It is generally attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo who was asked by Pope Julius II to build a (lost) villa adjoining the church.

Della Rovere fountain
(left) Detail of the well with a coat of arms of the two Della Rovere popes; (right) coat of arms of Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere

At the centre of the cloister an elegant well reminds us that this part of Rome did not have a supply of water until Pope Sixtus V built the aqueduct of Acqua Felice. The decoration of the well is attributed to Simone Mosca, a Florentine sculptor who worked with Michelangelo.

Barberini fountain
(left) 1642 fountain built at the expense of Cardinal Antonio Barberini; (right) inscription celebrating the event

Behind the well a small spouting fountain is a sign of the return of a constant supply of water on the hills of Rome. A lengthy inscription in a very elaborate frame celebrates the virtues of bees, the heraldic symbol of the Barberini:
Disce hospes aquae hujus perennitatem
e scatebra inexhausta;
Ea est Antonii Cardinalis Barberini Liberalitas.
Disce Suavitatem; Eam Apes profundunt.
Sapor in aquis caeteris vitium,
In hac mel et nectar est.
Nulla melior influat in hortos aqua
dum apes propinant
Melleam flores usuram bibunt.
Broad meaning of the inscription: Visitor, you should be aware that this perennial water which comes from a bubbling spring is a gift from Cardinal Antonio Barberini. Learn about sweetness; this is given to water by bees which take away vice and replace it with honey and nectar. There is no better nourishment for a garden, than that carried by bees for the never-ending appetite of flowers.
At the death of his uncle Pope Urban VIII, Cardinal Barberini had to fly to France to escape imprisonment: Romans had had enough of the Barberini bees.

S. Francesco di Paola

S. Francesco di Paola
(left) Church and monastery of S. Francesco di Paola; (right) details of the church

The church and the large monastery dedicated to St. Francis of Paola are now isolated on high ground because of the large street (Via Cavour) built to link the Railway Station of Termini with the southern part of the city. The church was built in 1623 and enlarged in 1650 at the expense of Donna Olimpia Aldobrandini (see the capital with her family's heraldic symbols - stars and stripes) and it has some interesting details. Olimpia Aldobrandini was the last of her family and thus the heiress of many important properties; she was the wife of Prince Paolo Borghese; when she lost her husband in 1646 she was convinced by Pope Innocent X to immediately marry his nephew Francesco Maria Pamphilj who renounced a cardinalship for this. Through this marriage the Pamphilj acquired the palace in Via Lata where they still live.

Torri degli Annibaldi e dei Cesarini

Towers
(left) Torre dei Cesarini (o Margani); (centre) Torre degli Annibaldi; (right) Casa dei Borgia

The area near S. Pietro in Vincoli retains several medieval buildings:
a) a tower next to S. Francesco di Paola which came into the possession of the Cesarini in the XVth century when it was given a Renaissance appearance;
b) a medieval tower in good condition and not modified by excessive restoration; it belonged to the Annibaldi who (in the XIIIth century) were fierce enemies of the Frangipane who lived not far from here in a fortified section of Colosseo; the ciceroni of the past claimed that on this tower Emperor Nero stood fiddling while Rome was burning (read William Dean Howells' account of his visit to S. Pietro in Vincoli and to this tower in 1908);
c) a house of the Cesarini where it was thought Vannozza Cattanei lived; she was the mistress of Pope Alexander VI Borgia. For this reason the house is called Casa dei Borgia; the Cesarini had family bonds with the Borgia: in 1493 the pope gave the cardinal's hat to Giuliano Cesarini, whose brother Gianandrea had married Gerolama Borgia, a daughter of the pope.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Chiesa di S. Pietro in Vinculis
Molto celebre è la chiesa, che siegue appresso le dette rovine, non solo perchè si conservano in essa le catene, con le quali il Principe degli Apostoli stette legato nella prigione di Gerusalemme, e le altre con le quali fu legato in Roma, miracolosamente unitesi insieme in tempo di s. Leone Magno; ma altresì per l'antichissima tradizione, che quivi il medesimo s. Pietro fondasse una chiesa, e vi celebrasse i divini Misteri, non già con quella magnificenza, e solennità, che dipoi si fece, dopo avuta pace la Chiesa cattolica; ma con quella parsimonia, e modestia, che permettevano quei primi tempi; perciò da Adriano fu rinnovata, ed ornata con antiche colonne striate, cavate forse dalle suddette terme, o da' tempj de' gentili. Giulio II. mentre ne era Cardinale titolare, vi pose i Canonici regolari di s. Salvatore, e poi fatto Papa rinnovò la chiesa, ed ordinò al Buonarroti , che vi facesse il suo deposito; ma per nostra disavventura non vi fece altro, che la sola statua di Mosè, tanto stupenda, che si guarda con ammirazione sopra tutte le opere antiche, e moderne; il resto però fu fatto da Raffaello di Montelupo. Il s. Agostino nel primo altare a destra è del Guercino da Cento, il sepolcro col ritratto del Card. Margotti, è del Domenichino; il s. Pietro in Carcere nell'altare, che siegue viene dal detto Domenichino; l'altro deposito col ritratto è similmente del Domenichino, e la mezza figura di s. Margherita da Cortona nell'ultima cappella è del suddetto Guercino. Le pitture, che sono nella tribuna, furono fatte a fresco da Giacomo Coppi Fiorentino, e del Cristo morto colla Madonna nella cappella a destra della tribuna, non se ne sa l'autore. La prigionia di san Pietro nell'altare, che siegue, è del Nogarj, ed il sepolcro del Card. Vecchiarelli fu fatto da due Napolitani. Siegue dopo un altare con l'immagine della ss. Vergine molto antica, ed un Santo fatto in mosaico: nell'ultimo altare evvi una Pietà, e nella volta il miracolo delle catene fu dipinto da Gio: Batista Paroti Genovese. Il monastero fu fatto con disegno di Giulio da Sangallo, e le rovine, che si vedono appresso, sono delle dette terme di Tito; quelle però, che si dicono le sette sale, si credono conserve di acqua, forse per la naumachia di Nerone, che era ove vediamo il Colosseo.
Chiesa di S. Francesco di Paola ai Monti
A destra della riferita è questa chiesa, rivoltata però dall'altra parte, e fu edificata dalla Principessa Panflli di Rostano con disegno di Gio: Pietro Morandi. Sta unita al convento de' Frati del medesimo santo Titolare, ed è ornata di varie pitture moderne; il s. Michele Arcangelo, ed il s. Francesco di Paola sono di Stefano Perugino, e i laterali nell'ultima cappella sono di Giuseppe Chiati.

Next plate in Book 3: Basilica di S. Giovanni in Laterano
Next step in Day 2 itinerary: Monastero delle Filippine
Next step in your tour of Rione Monti: Terme di Tito e di Traiano