Santa Maria della Consolazione, Catholic church in Campitelli, Rome, Italy.
Santa Maria della Consolazione is a baroque church in Rome, built on the slope of the Capitoline Hill where the Tarpeian Rock once stood. The church has a Mannerist facade and an interior decorated with frescoes and paintings from the 1500s.
The church began as a small chapel in the 1300s and was later rebuilt by Martino Longhi the Elder, who gave it its current form. Over the centuries it served as a stopping point where condemned prisoners received spiritual comfort before their execution.
The name of the church refers to its original role as a place of comfort for people condemned to death, who would stop here before their execution. Inside, frescoes painted in the 1500s by artists of the Roman school cover the walls and give the space a devotional character that is still palpable today.
The church sits at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, within easy walking distance of the Roman Forum and the Theater of Marcellus. It is an active place of worship, so visitors should dress modestly when entering.
In a chapel to the right of the altar, there is an image of the Virgin Mary that dates to the 1200s, long before the current building existed. Most visitors walk past it without realizing how much older it is than everything around it.
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