Santi Cosma e Damiano
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Italian city, see Santi Cosma e Damiano (LT).
The basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano is one of the churches of Rome. The basilica, devoted to the two Greek brothers, doctors, martyrs and saints Cosmas and Damian, is located in the Forum of Vespasian, also known as the Forum of the Peace.
The Cardinal Deacon of the Titulus Ss. Cosmae et Damiani is Giovanni Cheli.
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[edit] History
Santi Cosma e Damiano dates back to 527, when Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, and his daughter Amalasuntha donated the library of the Forum of Peace and a portion of the so-called Temple of Romulus[1] to Pope Felix IV. The pope united the two buildings to create a basilica devoted to two Greek brothers and saints, Cosma and Damian, in contrast with the ancient pagan cult of the two brothers Castor and Pollux, who had been worshipped in the close by Temple of Castor and Pollux. The apsis was decorated with a Roman-Byzantine mosaic, representing a parousia (coming at the end of time) of Christ.
The bodies of Saints Mark and Marcellian were translated, perhaps in the ninth century, to this church, where they were rediscovered in 1583 in the reign of Pope Gregory XIII.
In 1632, Pope Urban VIII ordered the restoration of the basilica. The works, projected by Orazio Torriani and directed by Luigi Arrigucci, raised the floor level seven metres, bringing it equal with the Campo Vaccino, thus avoiding the infiltration of water. Also, a cloister was added. The old floor of the basilica is still visible in the inferior church, which is actually the lower part of the first church.
In 1947, the restorations of the Imperial Forums gave a new structure to the church. The old entrance, through the Temple of Romulus, was closed, and the "temple" restored to its original forms; The Temple of Romulus is the best preserved pagan temple in Rome, together with the Pantheon. A new entrance was opened on the opposite side (on via dei Fori Imperiali), whose arch gives access to the cloister, and through this one to the side of the basilica.
[edit] Structure and artworks
Next to the new entrance to the complex, there are the rooms with the original marble floor of the Forum of Peace, and the wall where the 150 marble slabs of the Forma Urbis Romae were hung. Through the cloister, the entrance to the church opens on the side of the single nave. The plant of the basilica was designed according to the norms of the Counter-Reformation: a single nave, with three chapels per side, and the big apsis, which now looks quite oversized because of the reduction in height of the 17th century restoration, framed by the triumphal arch, also mutilated by that restoration.
A masterpiece of 6th-7th century art is the mosaic. In the middle is Christ, with Saint Peter presenting Saint Cosmas and Saint Teodorus (right), and Saint Paul presenting Saint Damian and Pope Felix IV; the latter holds a model of the church.
[edit] References
- Roma, Touring Club Italiano, 2004, pp. 276-277.
- "Santi Cosma e Damiano" at roma.katolsk.no.
- Basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Rome
[edit] External links
Media on Basilica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano in the Wikicommons.- Photo
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Temple of Romulus was dedicated by Emperor Maxentius to his son Valerius Romulus, died in 309 and divinizated. It is possible that the temple was in origin the temple of "Iovis Stator" or the one dedicated to Penates, and that Maxentius restored it before the re-dedication.
