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Chiesa di Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

Historic site · Sant'Eustachio, Italy

Permanently closed. This page is kept for reference.

Francesco Borromini's church, standing in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Sapienza. The rector's office states that the church is closed for works in progress. The Sunday 11.00 Mass is held in the Sala della Rettoria, entrance Via del Teatro Valle 33, from September to June and not in July or August. Roma Capitale states that a Mass is celebrated Monday to Friday at 9.00 in the same room.

History

Urban VIII appointed Borromini architect of the Sapienza in 1632, to finish a complex already designed and partly built by Giacomo Della Porta; the church's own site dates the building to 1642 to 1660. Borromini added the attic over the existing facade, carrying the eight-pointed stars and six hills of the Chigi for Alexander VII, and above it the lobed dome and the spiral cusped lantern with travertine torches, topped by a flaming crown with a wrought-iron sphere, cross and dove. The plan is centralised on a six-pointed star. Pietro da Cortona painted the high-altar canvas of Sant'Ivo, finished in 1683 by his pupil Giovanni Ventura Borghesi, and Borromini designed the marble intarsia floor.

Visit

Corso del Rinascimento 40, 00186 Roma RM

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