Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli

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Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli
Salita del Grillo
Rome, June 2019

“Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli is a baroque church dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena on Largo Magnanapoli on the slopes of the Quirinal Hill in Rome. A group of Dominican tertiary nuns, living in a small house in via Santa Chiara where St. Catherine had died, were looking for larger premises. Lead by Porzia Massimo whose late husband was a Conti, from 1574 they successively acquired parts of properties belonging to the Conti family at Magnanapoli to establish their convent there, financially assisted by Pope Gregory XIII. The originally small community thrived and quickly expanded from 27 nuns in 1574 to 108 in 1626, many of whom from important noble families. The construction of a church began in 1608, initially at expense of Cardinal Scipione Borghese to a design by Carlo Maderno, but stopped in 1613. Meanwhile, the monastery acquired the Torre delle Milizie in 1619. In 1628, the building of the current church was begun to a design by Giovanni Battista Soria. In 1631 the chancel and two adjacent chapels were completed. Building then came to a halt until the final portion of the church took shape from 1636 and concluded with the facade in 1641. The consecration of the church by cardinal Alessandro Cesarini took place in 1640. Another Dominican nuns' convent, Santi Domenico e Sisto, is just a stone's throw away. When the Via Nazionale was laid out in the 19th century, the street level was lowered. This raised the church entrance to a considerable height above the street. To allow access, a double staircase leading to the portico was built. Under the stairs is the entrance to the Crypt of the Fallen, constructed in 1934 and dedicated to the priests who were killed in the First World War.” (Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli, Wikipedia)