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You are in: Home » Culture and leisure » Historic places of worship » Catholic Churches » Basilica e Catacombe di San Pancrazio
Typology: Parish Church, Small Basilica

Address

Address: Piazza di San Pancrazio, 5
Zone: Quartiere Gianicolense (Roma ovest)

Contacts

Telephone: 06 5810458 - 06 4465610

Opening times

For the timetable of the masses and visiting conditions, please consult the contacts.

Catacombs are closed for restoration; please contact Pontificia Commissione dell'Archeologia Sacra Tel. 06-4465610

 

 

Description

In the heart of Monteverde in Rome, just outside the Aurelia gate, there is an ancient early Christian martyrial basilica, San Pancrazio, set in a vast open-air funerary area and insisting on the galleries of an interesting catacomb. Its history is complex and in many ways still to be explored. Of the four Christian cemetery nuclei that lined the two Via Aurelie, the vetus and the nova, that of St Pancratius on the vetus was undoubtedly the most important.
The basilica was built at the behest of Pope Symmachus (498-514) on the burial site of the famous martyr youth, who was venerated as an avenger and guardian of oaths. That his cult was in full bloom during the 6th century, we can deduce from indisputable historical data: already at the time of the Greco-Gothic wars (535-553) the gate of the Aurelia vetus was called the Porta San Pancrazio, a name that has remained constant to this day. It was during the 5th, but perhaps also in the 6th century that the edifying tale, the passio, of the end of the young martyr referred to the time of the Diocletian persecutions, in May 304 to be exact: the 14-year-old Pancratius, who had been orphaned, had come to Rome from Phrygia, together with his uncle Dionysius. Both had soon converted to Christianity, but Dionysus soon fell victim to persecution, while his young nephew was captured and brought before the emperor. Without showing any fear, he rejects the cult of the gods with fiery words and rails against them, thus procuring himself a swift martyrdom. Late at night, a pious Christian matron named Octavilla secretly recovers the body of the boy, abandoned along the Via Aurelia, and manages to give him a dignified burial in the nearby cemetery.
There are two elements to be taken into account in this account: the fact that the martyr was buried in a cemetery on the Via Aurelia, and his eastern origin, which is reflected in the numerous burials and Greek inscriptions found in the catacomb below the basilica of Pancratius. From the Liber Pontificalis we learn that when Pope Symmachus dedicated his foundation, he endowed it with a silver arch and a balneum, a fact that makes us reflect on the importance of the primitive complex and the services it was equipped with. According to the hypothesis, the Simmachian basilica had a nave and two side aisles, within the perimeter of the present one and of approximately the same size.
 The veneration and affection of the faithful for St. Pancratius did not wane with the passage of time, to the point that new and radical interventions were necessary during the first half of the 7th century, carried out at the behest of Pope Honorius I (625-638), perhaps also as a result of the damage from the Greco-Gothic wars.
The large dimensions, some 55 metres in length, convince us of the importance that the pontiff wanted to give to the renewed centre of worship. The pontiff therefore had a new basilica built on the site of the old one, which was undoubtedly equipped with a transept and an innovation that had only been tried out until then at St Peter's, to encourage the veneration of the faithful to the Prince of the Apostles: the semi-annular crypt. It is indirectly due to these works that we learn an interesting detail: for the first time since his burial in the distant 4th century, the martyr's body was moved to its most worthy location, namely under the altar, inside the crypt. Previously in the church of Symmachus, it lay in an anomalous position, placed obliquely in the middle of the hall.
In the past, some scholars had put forward the hypothesis that Honorius' basilica had, albeit minimally, retained traces of the earlier Simmachian building, but nowadays there is general agreement that all the ancient parts of the basilica, namely the transept and crypt area, as well as the general relic of the building, are due to Honorius I, and that no more can be said of the earlier Simmachian foundation. In the following centuries, the church was restored and embellished several times by various popes: Hadrian I (772-95) and Leo III (795-816). In the year 1061 we have news of the first abbot of St. Pancras becoming a cardinal, and in 1249 the basilica was the object of the care of Abbot Hugh, who donated two precious amboes in the Cosmatesque style and had various other embellishments done.
However, very few years later, in 1257, for reasons that remain completely obscure, the Benedictine monks left the care of the basilica, moving to Albano: they did not, however, abandon the devotion to St Pancratius, bringing his cult to their new seat, and soon making him the patron saint of the Latium town. For almost two centuries, the ancient foundation was entrusted to the Cistercian Benedictines, until, after various vicissitudes, Pope Leo X decided in 1517 to make it a cardinal's title, that is, entrusted 'ex officio' to the care of a cardinal, a fact that can be said to mark the origin of this ancient parish. According to the description left to us by Ugonio, a famous writer and scholar of Christian things, who visited it personally around 1565, the basilica at that time was reduced to a single nave, deprived of the lateral aisles by the construction of two walls that isolated the nave, and then extended to cut off the wings of the transept.
The right aisle was incorporated into the monastery, while the left aisle, left uncovered, had been abandoned to ruin. In the Baroque period, St. Pancras underwent impressive restoration and major embellishment works, mainly by the titular cardinals Lodovico de Torres and his nephew Cosimo, works that continued for almost the entire 17th century. The side aisles, of which the church had been deprived, were restored and reintegrated into the building, the slender early Christian colonnade was replaced by more massive pillars. New frescoes, attributed to Tempesta, covered the presbytery, and a magnificent wooden lacunar ceiling, with the arms of the De Torres family and Pope Paul V Borghese, covered the nave. At present, some of the original columns can be seen reused in various ways: one in the square in front of the basilica and two in the courtyard; another used as an Easter candle, while two frame the main portal of the church and one, sectioned, serves as a jamb for the side portals; the column that currently stands in the centre of Piazza S. Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere, also possibly belongs to S. Pancrazio, as do those that adorn the Casino of Villa Pamphili. Honoriana's early Christian masonry in "opera listata" of tufelli and bricks can still be clearly seen along the outer flank of the left aisle, often disturbed by the necessary interventions of the 17th-century restoration, distinguishable by a masonry of crude bricks and various reused material.
We can still find the work listed in the masonry of the apse, which retains the simple imprint of two windows that were never opened. The major works commissioned by the two titular cardinals de Torres in the 17th century gave the church its Baroque appearance, which still overlaps, like a thick patina, with its original appearance as an early Christian martyrial basilica, of which all the architectural features and much of the masonry can still be seen, despite the long centuries and troubled existence.

In 1662, the basilica was entrusted to the management of the Discalced Carmelites, who still look after it today, and who immediately carried out some restoration work and embellishments: a stucco frieze, with putti supporting a festoon, along the nave, and eight large bas-reliefs, also in stucco, in the side aisles. In 1798, the ancient basilica was subjected to the violence of Napoleonic soldiers who brought devastation and dramatic mutilation to the sacred place. The precious cosmatesque ambos that were kept there were removed and destroyed, the marble slabs that adorned the church were stripped from the walls and taken away, as were the rare porphyry columns that supported the baldachin above the altar, two of which were returned by the French in 1814 and are found reused in the present baldachin. Barely half a century later, in 1849, the basilica found itself on the front line between the French of General Oudinot, who had come to the aid of Pope Pius IX, and the Garibaldians, who had rushed to defend the Roman Republic. The damage to the ancient structure was considerable: destruction of the ancient cosmatesque presbytery enclosure, defaced and mutilated sculptures and paintings, as well as the marble coverings and ornaments of the high altar. Added to the destruction and looting was the desecration of the martyr's relics, preserved in a porphyry and peperino urn: the bones were irretrievably dispersed, in fact today there are relics of St. Pancras in the church, but from the Lateran.

See also

Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Museums
Last checked: 2022-06-27 10:13