Chiesa di San Bernardo alle Terme

Turismo Roma says the church stands on the perimeter of one of the circular towers that rose beside the remains of the Baths of Diocletian, and that in 1598 the countess Caterina Sforza Cesarini had it turned into a church. It is cylindrical and entirely without windows, lit only through the circular opening at the centre of an octagonally coffered dome, and measures 22 metres across inside. Eight raised niches hold stucco saints by Camillo Mariani, made around 1600 and each more than three metres tall: Augustine, Monica, Mary Magdalene, Francis, Bernard, Catherine of Alexandria, Catherine of Siena and Jerome. The two altarpieces are by Giovanni Odazzi. The church was first entrusted to the French Cistercians known as the Feuillants; after the French Revolution the order was dissolved and San Bernardo passed to the congregation of Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom it is dedicated. The Cappella di San Francesco holds the funerary monument of the German painter Friedrich Overbeck, founder of the Nazarenes, and the organ in the apse is by Nicola Morettini, 1885. Turismo Roma publishes a telephone number, 06 4882122, and no opening hours, directing visitors to the contacts given.

One thing a guidebook will get wrong here. Santa Susanna, on the same square, is not this rione's; Santa Maria della Vittoria opposite is in Sallustiano.