060608

S. MARIA IN AQUIRO The first data on the church date back to C.VII. The origins of the name “a Cyro” via which it is remembered since C. XII isstill uncertain. In1540 Paolo III conceded it to the Confraternita degliOrfani. The present church wasbuilt between 1588 and 1620 on the basis of a project by Francesco da Volterra firstand then by Carlo Maderno. The façade, built in accordance with a drawingby Maderno, was then completed in 1774 by Pietro Camporese il Vecchio. Thelower part embodies three portals surmounted by tympani; the upper partpresents a big window with two bell towers by the sides and crowned by atriangular tympanum. The interior, with a rectangular plan, embodiesthree naves with three chapels per side and was mainly decorated by CesareMariani who worked there during the restoration performed in 1866. The churchalso holds the oldest painting dedicated to the Vergine di Lourdes, dating backto 1873. In the apse one finds the fourteenth-century-fresco portraying the“Madonna col Bambino e S. Stefano”.