Museo di Santa Maria in Cappella

In the heart of the historic district of Trastevere, reopened to the public after decades of closure, the church of Santa Maria in the Chapel and part of the rooms adjoining the ancient villa owned by the Doria Pamphili family. From Wednesday, December 9, in the opening week of the jubilee year, it will, in fact, visited the Permanent Exhibition Versus Sea, housed in adjacent spaces to the building of worship turned into exhibition halls of the Museum of Santa Maria Chapel, founded to accommodate the review. The title of the exhibition evokes the long and noble history of the architectural complex, built in the vicinity of what, in Roman times, was one of the main river ports of the city, said Ripa Grande, one of the most important in the Mediterranean. Versus Sea, exhibition proposed in some Ligurian centers in the summer of 2015, narrates the vicissitudes of this place, by the consecration of the first sacred nucleus by Urban II, in 1090, the hospital founded by the Holy Family Francesca Romana, the transformation into baroque villa and garden of the delights of the noble Pamphili family, until the modern transformation into a home for the elderly. The museum sequence in different exhibition rooms where are exhibits ranging from Roman times to the nineteenth century: among the objects of religious furnishing stands the altar with precious Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), dedicated in 1113 by Pope Paschal II. Of great interest also the reliquary box in the lead, dating to the early decades of the twelfth century, found in the collection of the altar and two small jars containing the relics of several saints including the apostle Peter. Of particular value are the remains of the original stained glass windows in the Gothic Revival style, with scenes from the New Testament, and with the arms of the Doria Pamphili family. The tour ends with a visit to the church of Santa Maria in the Chapel, where the long process of archaeological excavation in the aisles is still visible; still a work in progress that has unearthed ceramic remains and fragments dating masonry between the fourth and fifth centuries, which tell the story of the previous structures to the construction of the building of worship but also the bustling life of the neighborhood.