Basilica di Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
Historic site · Colonna, Italy
A church with an apse, a dome drum and a campanile by Borromini. Roma Capitale records it from the twelfth century as Sant'Andrea «infra hortos», later rendered «delle Fratte», and gives the address as Via di Sant'Andrea delle Fratte 1. Its official site is madonnadelmiracolo.it. Roma Capitale publishes no opening hours for it and says only to contact the church, so none are given here.
History
Roma Capitale records that Sixtus V entrusted the church to the Order of Minims of St Francis of Paola in 1585 and that they began the rebuilding, funded by the Marchese Ottavio del Bufalo, whose buffalo-head arms appear on the portal pediment and on the campanile. The work dragged on for over a century for want of funds. The general design and the façade are Gaspare Guerra's, who worked there from 1604 to 1612; in 1653 the commission passed to Borromini, who designed the apse, the campanile and the dome drum, the dome left unfinished at his death, and Mattia de Rossi finished the work in 1691. The campanile is nicknamed «ballerino», the dancer, because the structure sways alarmingly when the great bell rings, and the diagonal buttresses of the tiburio make the form of St Andrew's cross. The Italian Wikipedia article adds that the church received the title of minor basilica on 25 April 1942, that it is called the santuario della Madonna del Miracolo after the Ratisbonne apparition of 20 January 1842 — a title corroborated by the official domain Roma Capitale itself lists — and that Maximilian Kolbe said his first Mass here on 29 April 1918.
Visit
Via di Sant'Andrea delle Fratte 1, Roma RM
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