I will fill this post with more detail once I’m back at my computer. Like when I create and backdate new posts, I’ll leave a note at the top so you know there’s something new to see in the earlier posts you’ve already seen.
Today we went on a walk around central Rome and visited a handful of less-popular churches. Hat tip to romewise.com for the recommendations – link goes here to their list of churches.
- Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, near Pantheon. There is an optical illusion – I don’t want to give away the trick though.
- Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Republica near the station. Built into the stone floor is a meridian line, and in the walls are oculi to let the sun in. At solar noon the sunlight crosses the meridian line and the distance along the line shows the date of the year. It’s like a sundial but for the date instead of the time. An unusual thing to have in a church. I suppose that by the time this was built in the 1700s the church had updated its previous opinions about the movements of the sun and the earth, see: Galileo
- Santa Maria Maggiore. This is actually a very popular church as it is directly owned by the Vatican, but it was on the route and we hadn’t seen it.
- Santa Prassede. Byzantine mosaics. Unfortunately closed in the afternoons when we arrived.
- Santi Cosma e Damiano. 6th century mosaics, built on top of a Roman temple in the Forum.