San Bernardo alle Terme is a basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 church in

Churches of Rome

There are more than 900 churches in Rome. Most, but not all, of these are Roman Catholic, with some notable Roman Catholic Marian churches.The first churches of Rome originated in places where Christians met. They were divided into three categories:...

 Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

The church was built in 1598 and was initially given to a French Cistercian group, the Feuillant

Feuillant

Feuillant, a French word derived from the Latin for leaf, has been used as a tag by two different groups:*Feuillant *Feuillant ‎...

s, through the intercession of Caterina Sforza di Santafiora. Later, after Feuillants disgregation during the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, the edifice and the annexed monastery were ceded to the Congregation of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...

, to whom the church is entitled.

The German painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck

Johann Friedrich Overbeck

Johann Friedrich Overbeck , was a German painter and member of the Nazarene movement. He also made four etchings.-Biography:...

, founder of the Nazarene

Nazarene movement

The name Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art...

 art movement

Art movement

An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years...

, is interred here. The most recent Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Bernardi ad Thermas was till his death Mar Varkey Vithayathil.

Art and architecture

The structure of San Bernardo alle Terme is similar to the Pantheon

Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...

, since it is cylindrical, with a dome and an oculus. The edifice has a diameter of 22 meters. The dome decoration, made of octagonal coffer

Coffer

A coffer in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault...

s, reminds one of the Basilica of Maxentius

Maxentius

Maxentius was a Roman Emperor from 306 to 312. He was the son of former Emperor Maximian, and the son-in-law of Emperor Galerius.-Birth and early life:Maxentius' exact date of birth is unknown; it was probably around 278...

. The interior is graced by eight statues of saints, each housed in wall niches, the work (c. 1600) of Camillo Mariani

Camillo Mariani

Camillo Mariani was an Italian sculptor of the early Baroque.He was born in Vicenza. He apprenticed in the studio of the prominent Venetian Mannerist sculptor Alessandro Vittoria, but moved to Rome in 1597. His first works in Rome were stucco statuary for the churches of San Bernardo alle Terme ...

. These are a good example of the so-called International Mannerism

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

. The Chapel of St Francis is an addition to the ancient rotunda, and contains a sculpture of that saint by Giacomo Antonio Fancelli

Giacomo Antonio Fancelli

Giacomo Antonio Fancelli was an Italian sculptor in stone and stucco of the Baroque era. He was the brother of Cosimo Fancelli and a pupil of Bernini...

. The construction of the church recycled the remains of one of only two circular towers, which marked the corners the southwestern face of the perimeter wall around the Baths of Diocletian

Baths of Diocletian

The Baths of Diocletian in Rome were the grandest of the public baths, or thermae built by successive emperors. Diocletian's Baths, dedicated in 306, were the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial baths. The baths were built between the years 298 AD and 306 AD...

, the other tower is today part of a hotel building and lies 225 meters southeast from San Bernardo alle Terme. Between these two tower-like structures, also part of the same perimeter wall, there used to exist large semicircular recess, similar to an exedra

Exedra

In architecture, an exedra is a semicircular recess or plinth, often crowned by a semi-dome, which is sometimes set into a building's facade. The original Greek sense was applied to a room that opened onto a stoa, ringed with curved high-backed stone benches, a suitable place for a philosophical...

 and was probably used as an Sphaeristerium

Sphaeristerium

Sphaeristerium Latin, from the , the term in classic architecture given to a large open space connected with the Roman thermae, for exercise with balls after the bather had been anointed; they were also provided in the Roman villas.- Sports :In Italian sferisterio is nowadays the courtfield for...

, Nowadays, the enormous scale of this recess and that of the wall itself may only be imagined from the layout of the modern Piazza della Repubblica

Piazza della Repubblica

Piazza della Repubblica is a semi-circular piazza in Rome, at the summit of the Viminal Hill, next to the Termini station. On it is to be found Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri...

, which followed the original layout of the ancient wall.

External links

• "San Bernardo alle Terme", by Nyborg.