San Bartolomeo all'Isola

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Facade of San Bartolomeo all'Isola on the Tiber Island.

Another view of Basilica di San Bartolomeo all'Isola, with the Torre dei Caetani behind

San Bartolomeo all'Isola is a basilica church in Rome, founded at the end of the tenth century by Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor. It contains the relics of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, and is located on Tiber Island, on the site of the former temple of Aesculapius, which had cleansed the island of its ill-repute and established its reputation as a hospital, continued today.

Emperor Otto built this church, which was initially dedicated to Adalbert of Prague, friend of Otto. It was renovated by Pope Paschal II in 1113 and again in 1180, after its rededication upon the arrival of the relics of the apostle Bartholomew. The relics were sent to Rome from Benevento, where they had arrived from Armenia in 809. The relics are located within an ancient Roman porphyry bath with lions' heads, under the main altar. The marble wellhead (puteale) bears the figures of the Savior, Adalbert and Bartholomew and Otto III.

The church was badly damaged by a flood in 1557 and was reconstructed, with its present Baroque façade, in 1624, to designs of Orazio Torriani. Further restorations were undertaken in 1852. The interior of the church preserves fourteen ancient Roman columns and two lion supports that date from the earliest reconstruction of the basilica.

In 2000, it was dedicated by John Paul II to the memory of the new martyrs of the twentieth and twenty-first century. This memorial is taken care of by the Community of Sant'Egidio, who also painted the icon on the main altar.

Icon of the Martyrs of the 20th century, inside San Bartolomeo

San Bartolomeo all'Isola is a titulus of the Roman Church. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Bartholomaei in Insula is Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago.

The twelfth century tower (illustration), the Torre dei Caetani is all that remains of the medieval castello erected on the island by the Pierleoni.

In the center of the piazzetta before the church is the four-sided guglia with saints in niches by the sculptor Ignazio Jacometti, erected here in 1869.