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Chiesa della Madonna dell'Arco Oscuro

Historic site · Pinciano, Italy

A two-room chapel cut into the tufa on viale delle Belle Arti, near Villa Giulia. The first room is modern, with ex-votos and a mosaic Annunciation; the second is the late eighteenth-century chapel proper, holding the arco oscuro itself with the Marian image walled in, and a Via Crucis of fourteen stations. A plaque outside reads Sacellum Matri Divinae Providentiae de Arcu Obscuro dicatum, and the arms of Innocent XI are on the entrance architrave.

History

It was built in 1797 and consecrated on 10 September of that year, to house a Marian icon that had hung under the bridge linking Villa Poniatowski to Villa Giulia, the dark arch that gives the church its name. The Giornale di Roma of 30 September 1797 records Fra Giovanni Andrea Michelotti chiselling the chapel out of the tufa and its solemn blessing on the Sunday.

Visit

Viale delle Belle Arti, 00197 Roma RM

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