Sant'Ivo dei Bretoni, Renaissance Revival church near Saint Louis of the French, Rome, Italy.
Sant'Ivo dei Bretoni is a church on vicolo della Campana, a side street off via della Scrofa, a short walk from Saint-Louis-des-Français. Its dark facade, designed by Luca Carimini and completed in 1888, carries a glazed terracotta medallion of the Virgin from the Della Robbia workshop, flanked by figures of Saint Yves and Saint Bernard added by Adriano Ferraresi in 1878. The interior has a right chapel of the Sacred Heart, a left chapel of the Virgin with a polychrome Madonna and Child, and an apse frescoed by Ludovico Seitz showing Christ adored by French saints.
The church was granted to the Breton community by Pope Nicholas V in the 15th century, confirmed by Callistus III's bull Rationi congruit of 20 April 1455. The medieval church, already in poor condition and flooded by the Tiber, was demolished in 1875 despite protests; a smaller church was rebuilt on the same site. Its facade, by Luca Carimini, dates from 1888.
The church is one of Rome's five French national churches and has been the Breton national church since the 15th century. Mass is celebrated on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays at 18:30 and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 12:45, outside university holidays. The apse fresco by Ludovico Seitz shows Christ adored by Saint Yves, Saint Martin of Tours, Clotilde, Louis IX, Bernard of Clairvaux and Geneviève of Paris.
The church is situated on a quiet side street near Piazza Navona and is easy to reach from nearby major churches. Keep in mind that regular services take place here, so access outside of service times may be limited.
The glazed terracotta medallion of the Virgin on the facade may come directly from the Della Robbia workshop in Florence, not from a copy as Pierre Lacroix claimed. In 1878 Adriano Ferraresi completed it, adding Saint Yves on the left and Saint Bernard. The old church's medieval bell tower collapsed in 1875, the year the church was demolished.
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