Oratorio di Sant'Andrea, Religious oratory in Celio district, Rome, Italy
The Oratorio di Sant'Andrea is a small religious building on Piazza di San Gregorio in Rome's Celio district, standing between two similar chapels. It has a rectangular plan, a wooden coffered ceiling bearing the Borghese family coat of arms, and an entrance framed by marble columns.
In the early 1600s, Cardinal Cesare Baronio began a thorough restoration of the building, and Cardinal Scipione Borghese completed the work shortly after. This renovation gave the oratory its current form and attracted some of the most sought-after painters working in Rome at the time.
The frescoes inside were painted by Guido Reni, Domenichino, and Giovanni Lanfranco, each working on a different section of the walls. Walking through the space, you can see how three painters of the same period approached the same story in noticeably different ways.
The oratory sits on Piazza di San Gregorio in the Celio district, within easy walking distance of the Colosseum. Access is not always guaranteed since the space is managed by the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, so it is worth checking before you visit.
When the building was reoriented in the 1500s, frescoes from the 10th and 11th centuries were uncovered on what had been an outer wall. These paintings of Christ and Prophets follow an older style that contrasts sharply with the later work commissioned for the interior.
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