Basilica di San Vitale, Rome

Built (as was standard practice at the time) on an ancient Roman "titulus" dedicated to the children in the 5th century, martyred di san Vitale was remodeled several times and restored until final restoration of 1475.

San Vitale was a Roman Legionary milanese origin, lived in the third century after Christ. Who converted to Christianity was martyred in Ravenna, where he erected a large and famous basilica. In Rome he was entitled this church dating from the early 5th century, built adjacent to the Vicus Longus: the ancient Roman road which wound between the Quirinale and Viminale with an alignment roughly corresponds to today's Via Nazionale. Probably the building arose on the ruins of a small private environment dedicated to the worship of Saints gervasius and protasius, the sons of St vital, even their victims of persecutions. The Church had a monumental portico with five protruding columns on the façade, known as "narthex", typical of early Christian churches. The inside was two aisles. During the middle ages the Church was restored several times, to be completely rebuilt in the time of Sixtus IV in 1475. The fact is testified by the inscription on the marble frame of the entrance door. The narthex was removed and the original aisles were reduced to a frescoed in fake architecture and decorated with four side altars. In 1600 the Florentine painter Agostino Ciampelli represented on the walls of the transept the tortures to which according to tradition was the eponymous Saint: the torture of the wheel (left) and stoning (right). Around 1850, to compensate for the gap formed in the centuries between the Church and the roadway, was built the great entrance staircase which still characterizes the building. A final restoration ending in the 1930s involved the reconstruction of ceilings and floors, and especially the restoration of the portico and façade where the outside of the building regained, at least in part, the original appearance. The Church was elevated to the rank of minor basilica. The basilica of San Vitale affects first the humble simplicity of facade, especially if compared to the lavish the eclectic style of the nearby Palazzo delle Esposizioni-neo (constructed in 1883 to designs of architect Pio Piacentini). A similar feeling, but perhaps less pronounced, you try comparing the magnificent Victorian with the simple harmony of the Renaissance façade of the basilica di San Marco (by Leon Battista Alberti) both in Piazza Venezia. Surprising contrasts that perhaps only Rome, with its ancient artistic and cultural stratification, manages to convey to the tourist. This church is easily accessible from the Metro stop Repubblica, walking along Via Nazionale for approximately 500 metres in the direction of Piazza Venezia.

We have moved more than 20 times without y home, but someday a downpour did us take refuge and there what pleasure not a centimetre square without a paint lovely and very clear and a very beautiful marble columns of all colors, to the center of the nave a beautiful altar of sculpted wood