Trinità dei Monti (also called Santissima Trinità al Monte Pincio, Trinità del Monte, or Holy Trinity on Pincio Hill) is a famous church in Rome. It is best known for its scenographic dominance above the Spanish Steps that descend into the Piazza di Spagna.

History

In 1494 Saint Francis of Paola, a hermit from Calabria bought a vineyard from the Papal scholar and former patriarch of Aquileia, Ermolao Barbaro, and then obtained the authorization from Pope Alexander VI to establish a monastery. In 1502, Louis XII of France began construction of the church of Trinità dei Monti next to this monastery, to celebrate his successful invasion of Naples. Construction began in a cutomarily French style with pointed late Gothic arches. Construction lagged, and a more conventionally Italian Renaissance church, with Carlo Maderno's façade, was finally consecrated in 1585 by the great urbanizer Pope Sixtus V, whose via Sistina connected the Piazza below with the Porta del Popolo, the main north entrance to Rome.

The Bourbon kings of France remained patrons of the church. During the Napoleonic occupation of Rome, the church, like many others in Rome, was despoiled of its artwork and decoration. After the Bourbon restoration Louis XVIII, the looted artwork was returned, and the present façade was commissioned in 1816 from Carlo Francesco Mazois.

In 1828, under an agreement worked out by Pope Leo XII and Charles X of France, the church and monastery were entrusted to the "Religieuses du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus", a French religious order. The Society of the Sacred Heart, as it is otherwise known, remains headquartered there today.

Structure and interior decoration

In front of the church stands the Obelisco Sallustiano, one of the obelisks in Rome, moved here from its position in the Gardens of Sallust and erected in 1789.

In a niche along a corridor that opens onto the cloister, is the putatively miraculous fresco of the Mater Admirabilis, depicting the Virgin Mary, painted in 1844.

In the first chapel to the right is a Baptism of Christ and other scenes of the life of John the Baptist by the Florentine Mannerist painter Giambattista Naldini. In the fourth chapel, the Cappella Orsini, are scenes of the Passion of Christ by Paris Nogari. The main altar has a canvas of the Crucifixion painted by Cesare Nebbia. In the Cappella Pucci, on the left, are frescoes (1537) by Perino del Vaga finished by Federico and Taddeo Zuccari in 1589. The second chapel has a well-known canvas in grisaille by the pupil of Michelangelo, Daniele da Volterra, which imitates in trompe l'oeil a work of sculpture; flanking it are frescoes by Paolo Céspedes and Cesare Arbasia. In the third chapel on the right, also by Volterra, is an Assumption. The first chapel on the left has frescoes by Nebbia. In the sacristy anteroom are more frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari: a Coronation of the Virgin, an Annunciation, and a Visitation.

References

• Chris Nyborg, "Santissima Trinità dei Monti"
• Roberto Piperno, "Chiesa della Santissima Trinità"
• Late 17th Century [[vedute] by Caspar Van Wittel prior to construction of Spanish Steps]
• Guide in Italian