Santa Maria in Traspontina

This ancient church is one of the most beautiful and ancient in the Borgo district and is located near Castel Sant’Angelo. It was demolished to develop and modernize the fortifications then existing and was subsequently rebuilt in the place where there was a pyramid dating back to the ancient Roman period. Santa Maria in Traspontina was then rebuilt by the architects Ottaviano Mascherino, Francesco Peparelli and Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi who, at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, created the beautiful and sinuous facade with a decidedly low dome in order not to create difficulties in shooting the cannons. of Castel Sant’Angelo.

Inside the church you can admire the great high altar built by Carlo Fontana in 1674, equipped with a showy canopy and a precious icon of the Madonna which has very ancient origins; in 1200 it was, in fact, transported from the Holy Land to where it is now. In 1597 the Cavalier d’Arpino painted the chapel of Santa Barbara, considered the patron saint of gunners. Inside the church there is the tomb of Nicola Zabaglia, legendary Sampietrino (1664 – 1750) and the tomb of Nicola Zabaglia, a Spanish soldier, godfather of Rodrigo di Bisceglie, son of Lucrezia Borgia. Attached to the church is the oratory of Christian doctrine, where the catechization of young people takes place; it is decorated with frescoes by the brothers Luigi and Sebastiano Garzi.