Santa Maria in Traspontina

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Santa Maria in Traspontina by Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi
Via della Conciliazione
Rome, April 2013

“Pope Alexander VI demolished an ancient Roman pyramid on the same site (the Meta Romuli, believed in the Middle Ages to be Romulus's tomb, and portrayed on the bronze doors to St Peter's Basilica and in a Giotto di Bondone triptych in the Vatican Museums) for the construction of the first church. This church was then demolished during the pontificate of Pius IV (1559–1565) to clear the line of fire for the cannons of the Castel Sant' Angelo, who wished to exercise shooting on the Gianicolo Hill, which otherwise would have been hidden behind the church. Designs by Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi (with contributions by Ottaviano Nonni and Francesco Peparelli) for a replacement church were in place by 1566, though the papal artillery officers insisted that its dome be as low as possible to avoid a recurrence of the previous problem — for this reason this is the only church in Rome whose dome does not lie on a drum. The new church was erected along the North side of Borgo Nuovo, which was at that time - and until its destruction in 1937 - the main road of Borgo.” (Santa Maria in Traspontina, Wikipedia)