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Basilica del Sacro Cuore di Gesu a Castro Pretorio

Historic site · Castro Pretorio, Italy

The Salesian minor basilica in Via Marsala, completed in 1887 through St John Bosco, with his last Roman rooms behind the choir.

History

The basilica stands in Via Marsala. Italian Wikipedia records that Pius IX laid the first stone in 1870, that work stopped at the annexation of Rome and resumed in 1880 through St John Bosco, and that the church was completed in 1887 to a design by the architect Francesco Vespignani. The parish was erected on 2 February 1879 by the vicarial decree Postremis hisce temporibus; Benedict XV raised the church to the rank of minor basilica on 11 February 1921 by the apostolic letter Pia societas; and Paul VI created the cardinal deaconry on 5 February 1965.

Behind the choir the Salesians preserve the rooms known as le Camerette di Don Bosco. Italian Wikipedia records that Don Bosco stayed there from 30 April to 18 May 1887, on the twentieth and last of his journeys to Rome, for the consecration of the basilica; that the space was originally two rooms, a study where he received visitors and a bedroom with a cabinet altar for private Mass; and that the wall between them was later demolished to make a single chapel as pilgrims began to come.

No source states a street number, opening hours or Mass times for the basilica, so none are given here.

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