Baths of Diocletian or Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martyri

Architecture, art, science, religion--the Church of Saint Mary of Angels and Martyrs
Julianne is writing this and all the photos are taken by Nancy.

For the actual Baths of Diocletian of Roman times I have little to say:
--huge
--late empire
--convenient to modern train station

A brief explanation: Diocletian was one of the later emperors in the imperial period and made almost his only architectural mark by building this giant structure.  Not so long in use though.  The Goths cut the aqueducts, conquered Rome and the hulk fell into disuse for 1000 years.  However, as tourists, many of us go there as the re-purposed building is so convenient, just at the main train station/bus terminal.  Me too. I had no idea what a treat was in store for me.

The excitement of this place is the work of art that is the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri and the works of art and science which are in or part of the church.  Stunning.  Guidebooks do not convey the masterful melding of ancient, renaissance and modern.

Michelangelo designed the church which was built within the original baths and kept much of the Roman building intact. Most of the church was complete by his death in 1564. In the mid-1700's it was restored with much of Michelangelo's vision intact.  Unusually for a church, the transept is much longer than the nave as the church maintains the structure of the original baths.  The light from the high windows under the original domes fills the transept illuminating the paintings transferred here from St. Peters Basilica in the 1600's.  The baths' original granite pillars were used and more were added.  The space works well as a visual whole in a way rarely seen in large church structures.  It is an artistry of light in a massive space.

Detail of martyrs' heads

Angels and Martyrs

The façade of the church is set within one of the curves of a tower of the baths.  It retains the original Roman brick and curves inward.  Two arched doorways have cast bronze doors by current Polish artist, Igor Mitoraj.  This church was my introduction to his work which is exquisitely skilful.  Although I have been unaware, he is a well-regarded artist who died recently in Paris. He has a marble carving of the head of John the Baptist in the nave of the church.  Of his own work, he says "The idea of beauty is ambiguous." In the doors the composition of the broken bodies of humans and angels creates a whole in which the art of a 21st C. artist melds with the 4 C. Roman brickwork.  The power of the art and architecture working in harmony kept me coming back for more looks.  I have seen more each visit and will go again.  The doors, architecture--the whole--set the stage for the ambiguity that is the physical and spiritual church embodied here.

Just inside, the nave of the church is short and dark, framed by the background of the transept which is wide and light-filled--so different from the structure of most Christian churches.  The visionaries who commissioned the doors, took full advantage of the oddities of the structure and created a skylight/glass dome within the short, dark section that creates in glass a "lucernaria" or oculus which uses prisms to cast colored light on the church floor to mark the time of day and season.  The dome is both a work of art and science, foreshadowing another other major feature of the church which is the Clementine sundial.

The yellow prism at about 7:30 in the dome...

...shows as a spot of yellow light on the church floor.

The sundial is in the transept of the church and crosses diagonally into the choir and apse in order to have a true north/south axis.  The sun enters in a pinhole on the south end and crosses the meridian line at exactly noon.

Pinhole in upper south wall

A further pinhole in a north window captures the light of the north star providing a scientific refinement in calendrical efforts not studied before its installation in 1702.  The basilica itself became a scientific instrument.  The sundial and star-transit allowed the scientists of the day, themselves churchmen, a refined understanding of the movements of the heavenly bodes.  Galileo had been condemned, but the church itself was gathering and refining facts to support contention that the sun is the center of the solar system.

Faint sun image in middle of pillar

One of our visits spanned noon so we could see both the lucernaria's colored prism reflected in the nave and the solar image on the sundial.  Since it is winter and sometimes cloudy, we targeted as sunny of a day as we could.  The colored prism was strong but the sundial's solar image was so faint we almost missed it.  A burst of sun late in the hour showed the solar image on one of the pillars--lucky for us to see it at all.


We will go back, though.  Such a combination of history, art and science is a rare treat for us. It helps that the church is close to Ristorante da Giovanni, open for lunch.