Santi Bartolomeo ed Alessandro dei Bergamaschi

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Santi Bartolomeo ed Alessandro dei Bergamaschi (Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and Alexander of Bergamo of the inhabitants of Bergamo) is a little church in Piazza Colonna in Rome, next to Palazzo Wedekind.^[1] Originally it was named Santa Maria della Pietà, from the high relief over the door. (The present Santa Maria della Pietà in Rome is in Vatican City.^[2])

In its origins (1591) the church was the chapel erected by padre Ferrante Ruiz for the Ospedale dei Pazzarelli, Rome's first insane asylum. When this was moved to the Lungara in the 1720s, the church was given over to the Archiconfraternità dei Bergamaschi, who rebuilt it in 1731-35 to designs of Giuseppe Valvassori (1683-1761), added their patron saint to its dedication and used the hospital for their own sick. It is the burial place of Giuseppe Alessandro Cardinal Furietti (1685-1764), antiquarian and native of Bergamo.

It is looked after by the Arciconfraternità, a historic association of Bergamaschi living in Rome that was begun in 1539. It supports understanding of the culture, the values and the traditions of Bergamo and their fertile dialogue with those of Rome.

[edit] Notes

^ Palazzo Wedekind, built in 1838, to designs of Pietro Camporese the Younger (1792-1873), is notable for the portico of sixteen elegant Roman columns brought from the ruins of Veii (TCI).
^ Churches in Rome