Rome’s beautiful but gruesome treasure. This church is the oldest circular church in Rome, dating back to 460AD. Why it was built in this circular shape, no one knows. Today, most visitors will come to see the gore of Santo Stefano Rotondo. For in the 1500’s the Jesuits took over the space and painted huge bloody frescoes on the interior walls.
The Church
I found this church on my previous visit to Rome in 2018 and it took me a long time to locate it that day. It quickly became one of my very favourite places in all of Rome. The church is utterly unique in every way.
Being in a non tourist area, it is not easy to find without the help of a gps. With entry now from the side of the church and down a non assuming garden path, one might walk right on by. The opening hours are very limited, so this is perhaps better as a planned visit.
Passing through the large painted doors, you enter a small vestibule and shortly thereafter the huge round cavernous room. The transition happens so suddenly it quite takes your breath away. The smell is exquisite. The strong odour is of cold stone, not dampness but ancient rock.
The Interior
At the centre of the room is an altar surrounded by large ancient columns. Today when I visited, the church was being prepped for a wedding. Flowers were being added, white chairs placed and a basket full of paper cones filled with rice was at the door.
The Frescoes
Between the inner columns and the outer walls is the largest circular vacuum. It is on these walls in the 1500’s, that the Jesuits painted the most gruesome and gory frescoes of martyrs. These were painted as a reminder of what might await the missionaries as they prepared to go off and do their life’s work.
Many of the fresco’s have faded but the messages are painfully clear.
These massive depictions were painted directly on the stone walls, even the frames are painted. Below each one is a key, usually with the letters ‘A’ through ‘D’ which tells the viewer who the individuals are.
The depictions are beautiful in their dark ways. Saints are shown getting limbs severed, having molten lead poured down their throats and being boiled alive.
Others are having their breasts removed, being decapitated and being burned alive.
And still other martyrs are being mauled by lions and dogs, being buried alive and being cooked inside a bull shaped cauldron.
Some years prior, a portion of the floor caved in and discovery of what lay beneath has begun. The church has seen many changes over the centuries and except for the general layout, it barely resembles the original structure.
If the Colosseum and all that happened there is not gory enough for you, the paintings on the walls of Santo Stefano Rotondo is sure to fulfill the dark past of Rome.
