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Chiesa dei Santi Nereo e Achilleo

Historic site · San Saba, Italy

A church of three naves with a wooden roof. The Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma records the mosaic outside the apsidal arch, an Annunciation, a Transfiguration and a Theotokos, as surviving decoration of the time of Leo III; the two side altarpieces in situ, Durante Alberti's Madonna adored by angels on the right and Cristoforo Roncalli il Pomarancio's Ss Nereus, Achilleus and Domitilla on the left; and the relics of the martyrs in an urn still under the high altar. The façade opens onto a small forecourt on Viale delle Terme di Caracalla and keeps the form given it by the restorations of Sixtus IV. It is a gabled front carrying geometric sgraffito decoration, which it.wikipedia attributes to Girolamo Massei, commissioned by Cardinal Cesare Baronio. The façade was restored in 2025. The Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma gives the opening as every Saturday 10.00 to 12.00. The Diocese of Rome's own record gives Tuesday and Thursday 9.00 to 12.00. The two differ. The Diocese records the church as a rectory of the parish of Santa Maria in Vallicella, with Fr Simone Raponi as rector from 01/07/2022.

History

The Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma records the titulus fasciolae, instituted under Julius I (337 to 352); the titulus later took the martyrs' names and is so recorded in a letter of Gregory the Great in 600. A basilican church was built under Leo III (795 to 816), then abandoned as the site was unhealthy, and ruined. Sixtus IV (1471 to 1484) transformed it shortly before the Holy Year, removing the first two bays and replacing the dividing columns with octagonal masonry piers, and raised it to a cardinal's title. Cardinal Cesare Baronio of the Roman Oratory had the church restored and decorated in 1597, ahead of the Jubilee of 1600, when the relics of Ss Nereus, Achilleus and Domitilla were translated here.

Visit

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 28, 00153 Roma RM

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