San Luigi dei Francesi
Encyclopedia
The Church of St. Louis of the French is a Roman Catholic minor basilica
and titular church in Rome
, not far from Piazza Navona
. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite
and St. Louis IX
, king of France. The church was designed by Giacomo della Porta
and built by Domenico Fontana
between 1518 and 1589, and completed through the personal intervention of Catherine de' Medici
, who donated to it some property in the area. It is the national church in Rome
of France
. The current Cardinal-Priest of the Titulus S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe is André Vingt-Trois
.
in 898, a group of refugees settled in Rome. Monks remained in Rome even after their abbot Ratfredus (934-936) rebuilt the abbey. By the end of the tenth century, the Abbey of Farfa owned in Rome churches, houses, windmills and vineyards. A bull of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III in 998 confirms the property of three churches: Santa Maria, San Benedetto and the oratorio of San Salvatore. When they ceded their property to the Medici
family in 1480, the church of Santa Maria became the church of Saint Louis of the French. Cardinal Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici commissioned Jean de Chenevière to build a church for the French community in 1518. Building was halted when Rome was sacked in 1527, the church was finally completed in 1589 by Domenico Fontana
. The interior was restored by Antoine Dérizet
between 1749 and 1756.
The foundation is responsible for the five French churches in Rome and apartment buildings in Rome and in Loreto
. The foundation is governed by an "administrative deputy" named by the French ambassador to the Holy See
.
made the façade as a piece of decorative work entirely independent of the body of the structure, a method much copied later. The French character is evident from the façade itself, which has several statues recalling national history: these include Charlemagne
, St. Louis, St. Clothilde and St. Jeanne of Valois
. The interior also has frescoes by Charles-Joseph Natoire
recounting stories of Saint Louis IX, Saint Denis
and Clovis
.
. Other artists who worked in the decoration of San Luigi dei Francesi include Cavalier D'Arpino, Francesco Bassano il Giovanni, Muziano
, Giovanni Baglione
, Siciolante da Sermoneta
, Jacopino del Conte
, Tibaldi
and Antoine Derizet
.
The church's most famous item is, however, the cycle of paintings in the Contarelli Chapel
, painted by the Baroque
master Caravaggio
in 1599-1600 about the life of St. Matthew. This include the three world-renowned canvases of The Calling of St Matthew
, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew
.
in Rome in 1805, erected by her lover Chateaubriand, the classic liberal economist Frédéric Bastiat
and that of Cardinal François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis
, ambassador in Rome for Louis XV
and Louis XVI
.
stayed when he came to Rome for his trial, which was held at the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
which is on the other side of the Pantheon
.
San Luigi dei Francesi Building. It was built in 1709-1716 as a place to stay for the French religious community and pilgrims without resources". Its porch has a bust of Christ whose face is traditionally identified as Cesare Borgia
's. The interior houses a gallery with portraits of the French kings and a notable Music Hall.
Minor basilica
Minor basilica is a title given to some Roman Catholic churches. By canon law no Catholic church can be honoured with the title of basilica unless by apostolic grant or from immemorial custom....
and titular church in 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...
, not far from Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite
Denis
Saint Denis is a Christian martyr and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred in connection with the Decian persecution of Christians, shortly after A.D. 250...
and St. Louis IX
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
, king of France. The church was designed by Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.-Biography:...
and built by Domenico Fontana
Domenico Fontana
Domenico Fontana was a Swiss-born Italian architect of the late Renaissance.-Biography:200px|thumb|Fountain of Moses in Rome....
between 1518 and 1589, and completed through the personal intervention of Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici
Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France....
, who donated to it some property in the area. It is the national church in Rome
National churches in Rome
Charitable institutions attached to churches in Rome were founded right through the medieval period and included hospitals, hostels and others providing assistance to pilgrims to Rome from a certain "nation", which thus became these nations' national churches in Rome...
of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The current Cardinal-Priest of the Titulus S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe is André Vingt-Trois
André Vingt-Trois
André Armand Vingt-Trois is a French cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Archbishop of Paris, having previously served as Archbishop of Tours from 1999 to 2005. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007....
.
History
When the Saracens burned the Abbey of FarfaAbbey of Farfa
Farfa Abbey is a territorial abbey in northern Lazio, central Italy. It is one of the most famous abbeys of Europe. It belongs to the Benedictine Order and is located about 60 km from Rome, in the commune of Fara Sabina, not far from the Fara Sabina railway station.-History:A legend in the...
in 898, a group of refugees settled in Rome. Monks remained in Rome even after their abbot Ratfredus (934-936) rebuilt the abbey. By the end of the tenth century, the Abbey of Farfa owned in Rome churches, houses, windmills and vineyards. A bull of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III in 998 confirms the property of three churches: Santa Maria, San Benedetto and the oratorio of San Salvatore. When they ceded their property to the Medici
Medici
The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...
family in 1480, the church of Santa Maria became the church of Saint Louis of the French. Cardinal Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici commissioned Jean de Chenevière to build a church for the French community in 1518. Building was halted when Rome was sacked in 1527, the church was finally completed in 1589 by Domenico Fontana
Domenico Fontana
Domenico Fontana was a Swiss-born Italian architect of the late Renaissance.-Biography:200px|thumb|Fountain of Moses in Rome....
. The interior was restored by Antoine Dérizet
Antoine Derizet
Antoine Dérizet , of Lyon, was an experimentally classicizing French Late Baroque architect who spent much of his career in Rome, where he designed the churches of Church of SS...
between 1749 and 1756.
The foundation is responsible for the five French churches in Rome and apartment buildings in Rome and in Loreto
Loreto (AN)
Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
. The foundation is governed by an "administrative deputy" named by the French ambassador to the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
.
Exterior
Giacomo della PortaGiacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.-Biography:...
made the façade as a piece of decorative work entirely independent of the body of the structure, a method much copied later. The French character is evident from the façade itself, which has several statues recalling national history: these include Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, St. Louis, St. Clothilde and St. Jeanne of Valois
Joan of France, Duchess of Berry
Joan of France was briefly Queen consort of France as wife of King Louis XII of France, in between the death of her brother, Charles VIII, and the annulment of her marriage....
. The interior also has frescoes by Charles-Joseph Natoire
Charles-Joseph Natoire
Charles-Joseph Natoire was a French painter in the Rococo manner, a pupil of François Lemoyne and director of the French Academy in Rome, 1751-1775...
recounting stories of Saint Louis IX, Saint Denis
Denis
Saint Denis is a Christian martyr and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred in connection with the Decian persecution of Christians, shortly after A.D. 250...
and Clovis
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...
.
Interior
Domenichino painted here one of his masterworks, the frescoes portraying the Histories of Saint CeciliaSaint Cecilia
Saint Cecilia is the patroness of musicians and Church music because as she was dying she sang to God. It is also written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord". St. Cecilia was an only child. Her feast day is celebrated in the Roman Catholic, Anglican,...
. Other artists who worked in the decoration of San Luigi dei Francesi include Cavalier D'Arpino, Francesco Bassano il Giovanni, Muziano
Girolamo Muziano
Girolamo Muziano , was an Italian painter, active in a late-Renaissance or Mannerism style. He was born in Acquafredda, near Brescia, but active mainly in Rome....
, Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione
Giovanni Baglione was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. He is best remembered for his acrimonious involvement with the artist Caravaggio and his writings concerning the other Roman artists of his time.-Early life:A pupil of Francesco Morelli, he worked mainly...
, Siciolante da Sermoneta
Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta
Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta was an Italian Mannerist painter active in Rome in the mid 16th century.Native to Sermoneta, he was reputed to have been a pupil of Leonardo da Pistoia. His first known work is an altarpiece once in the Valvisciolo Abbey, now in Palazzo Caetani in Rome. In...
, Jacopino del Conte
Jacopino del Conte
Jacopino del Conte was an Italian Mannerist painter, active in both Rome and Florence.A native of Florence, Jacopino del Conte was born the same year as another Florentine master Cecchino del Salviati and, like Salviati and a number of other painters, he initially apprenticed with the influential...
, Tibaldi
Pellegrino Tibaldi
Pellegrino Tibaldi , also known as Pellegrino di Tibaldo de Pellegrini, was an Italian mannerist architect, sculptor, and mural painter.-Biography:...
and Antoine Derizet
Antoine Derizet
Antoine Dérizet , of Lyon, was an experimentally classicizing French Late Baroque architect who spent much of his career in Rome, where he designed the churches of Church of SS...
.
The church's most famous item is, however, the cycle of paintings in the Contarelli Chapel
Contarelli Chapel
The Contarelli Chapel, within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio....
, painted by the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
master Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
in 1599-1600 about the life of St. Matthew. This include the three world-renowned canvases of The Calling of St Matthew
The Calling of St Matthew (Caravaggio)
The Calling of Saint Matthew is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicting the Calling of Matthew. It was completed in 1599-1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome...
, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew is a painting by the Italian master Caravaggio. Commissioned by the French Cardinal Matteo Contarelli, the canvas hangs in Contarelli chapel altar in the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy...
, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (Caravaggio)
The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew is a painting by the Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is located in the Contarelli Chapel of the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it hangs opposite The Calling of Saint Matthew and beside the altarpiece The...
.
Burials
The church was chosen as the burial place for the higher prelates and members of the French community of Rome: these include the tomb of Pauline de Beaumont, who died of consumptionTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in Rome in 1805, erected by her lover Chateaubriand, the classic liberal economist Frédéric Bastiat
Frédéric Bastiat
Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost.-Biography:...
and that of Cardinal François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis
François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis
François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis was a French cardinal and statesman. He was the sixth member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française in 1744.- Biography :...
, ambassador in Rome for Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
and Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
.
Trivia
This church is where Martin LutherMartin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
stayed when he came to Rome for his trial, which was held at the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Santa Maria sopra Minerva
The Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
which is on the other side of 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 ,...
.
San Luigi dei Francesi Building
Adjacent to the church is the late-BaroqueBaroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
San Luigi dei Francesi Building. It was built in 1709-1716 as a place to stay for the French religious community and pilgrims without resources". Its porch has a bust of Christ whose face is traditionally identified as Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia
Cesare Borgia , Duke of Valentinois, was an Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was the brother of Lucrezia Borgia; Giovanni Borgia , Duke of Gandia; and Gioffre Borgia , Prince of Squillace...
's. The interior houses a gallery with portraits of the French kings and a notable Music Hall.
Cardinal-Priests of St. Louis of the French since 1967
- Pierre VeuillotPierre VeuillotPierre Marie Joseph Veuillot was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Paris.-Life:He was ordained on 26 March 1939 in Paris. He served as a member of the parochial clergy until 1942, when he went to work in the Vatican Secretariat of State. In 1959 Pope John XXIII appointed him Bishop of...
(29 June 196714 February 1968) - François MartyFrançois MartyGabriel Auguste François Marty was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Paris.He was born in Vaureilles, Pachins, in France. His family were farmers. His first baptismal name was Gabriel; but he used his second one, François, to avoid confusion with a classmate who was also named Gabriel...
(30 April 196916 February 1994) - Jean-Marie Lustiger (26 November 19945 August 2007)
- André Armand Vingt-Trois (24 November 2007Present)
External links
- Nyborg's Churches of Rome
- Official website of the Diocese of Rome, Chiesa Rettoria San Luigi dei Francesi in Campo Marzio
- Official website of the Church