Sant'Andrea al Quirinale

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Façade of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, bearing cardinal Pamphili crest.

Interior (centre).

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale is the church of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill in Rome.

It was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Giovanni de' Rossi over two decades (1658-1678). The site previously hosted a 16th century church, San Andrea a Montecavallo. The new building was commissioned by Pope Alexander VII and Cardinal Camillo Pamphilj. It is considered one of the finest examples of Roman Baroque architecture, embedding art into the structure in an often seamless combination. Bernini considered it his only perfect work. In his late years, his son recalled, he spent hours sitting in the church and looking at the polychrome marbles, the gilded and bleached stuccoes, and the play of light in the interior.

Oval in shape, with the entrance and high altar on the short axis of the ellipse, Sant'Andrea has a semicircular porch decorated with the arms of its Pamphilj patron. The stucco decoration was designed by Bernini and executed by Antonio Raggi and others between 1661 and 1666, with putti and cherubim beneath the windows. A Martyrdom of Saint Andrew (1668) by Borgognone stands on the high altar.

The first chapel houses three canvas by Baciccio: Death of San Francesco Saverio and two other canvases (1705). The second chapel has three canvases by Giacinto Brandi: a Deposition, a Flagellation, and a Road to Calvary (1682). In the second chapel on the left is a Madonna with child and Saint Stanislao Kostka (1687) by Carlo Maratta with a ceiling fresco of Glory of the Saints by Giovanni Odazzi. In the first chapel is a Madonna and child and Saints by Ludovico Mazzanti, with a ceiling with Glory of the Angels by Giuseppe Chiari.