The Angels and the Martyrs

Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
(St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs)

The Angels and the Martyrs predate the Sharks and the Jets, the Mods and the Rockers, and the Greasers and the Socs by hundreds of years, and yet have failed to produce a great motion picture soundtrack. However, to their credit, the basilica seen here was built in their honour, inside the frigidarium of the ancient Roman Baths of Diocletian. According to a Wiki article, Michelangelo Buonarroti worked from 1563 to 1566 to adapt a section of the remaining structure of the baths to enclose a church. That would mean he worked on it from the age of 88 until he died at 89, and then for another two years after his death! So, if you were not already amazed that he created David at age 27, then maybe the fact that he continued to work after his death will impress you. At Santa Maria degli Angeli Michelangelo archieved an unexampled sequence of shaped architectural spaces with few precedents or followers. As you can see, there is no true facade. The simple entrance is set within one of the coved apses of a main space of the thermae. It is located in close proximity to the Rome's Termini train station, which takes its name from the thermal baths (latin: thermae); not from the latin terminus, as I always thought, incorrectly, as it were. It is remarkable that such an important church escaped renovation during the baroque period. If the architect had been someone other than Michelangelo, it would probably have been 'updated' with a 'proper' marble facade.



The bronze doors were created by Igor Mitoraj. He is a Polish artist born in Oederan, Germany in 1944. Having previously worked with terracotta and bronze, he set up a studio in Pietrasanta in 1983, (following a trip to Carrara, Italy in 1979) and now uses marble as his primary medium. In 2006, he created the new bronze doors and a marble statue of John the Baptist for the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome.

I really like this church because so many of the threads that weave present day Rome with its past are visible here. The wall supports and vast scale are from Ancient Rome, Michelangelo's enclosure of the space is late Renaissance, and the new entrance doors are Post-modern. Nevertheless, you cannot help but sweep aside the historical facts and simply be awed by the beauty of the vast, divinely proportioned space.


If your back is facing to the front doors of the Angeli, you look onto Piazza della Repubblica (where, fyi, you can get great Sicilian cannoli if you are tiring of the Roman fare). Far from capturing it, this photo serves to remind me of the magic of wintertime twilight in the north. Having now travelled most of my way around the globe, I can say without exception that the light I saw in Italy in November and December was the most beautiful.



Not far from the Angeli is Palazzo Massimo, one of the many branches of the National Museum of Rome. It was renovated recently and the new space shows off its impressive collection of ancient Greek and Roman beautifully. I was really excited to finally meet this Boxer, having been captivated by a photo of his hands for some time now. He is sometimes called the Terme Boxer, and is a Hellenistic Greek sculpture from the first century B.C.