San Pancrazio

San Pancrazio is a basilica church in Rome, founded in the 6th century. It stands in via S. Pancrazio, westward beyond the Porta San Pancrazio that opens in a stretch of the Aurelian Wall on the Janiculum.

The basilica was built by Pope Symmachus (498-514), on the place where the body of the young martyr Saint Pancras, or Pancratius, had been buried. In the 17th century, it was given to the Discalced Carmelites, who completely remodeled it. The church underwent further rebuilding in the 19th century, but it retains its plain brick facade of the late 15th century, with the arms of Pope Innocent VIII.[1]

Below the church there are huge catacombs, the Catacombe di S. Pancrazio or di Ottavilla. Entrance is next to the small Museo di S. Pancrazio with fragments of sculpture and pagan and early Christian inscriptions.[1]

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Pancratii is Antonio Cañizares Llovera. Among the previous titulars, Pope Paul IV (15 January-24 September 1537) and Pope Clement VIII (18 December 1585-30 January 1592).

Notes

  1. ^ a b Touring Club Italiano, Roma e dintorni (Milan, 1965) p. 455.

External links

Media related to San Pancrazio (Roma) at Wikimedia Commons