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Santa Croce alla Lungara

1619 establishments in Italy1619 establishments in the Papal States17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in ItalyChurches of Rome (rione Trastevere)Roman Catholic churches completed in 1619
Roman Catholic churches in Rome
Trastevere S. Croce alla Lungara
Trastevere S. Croce alla Lungara

Santa Croce alla Lungara is a church in Rome (Italy), in the Rione Trastevere, facing on Via della Lungara. It is also called Santa Croce delle Scalette', due to the presence of a double flight of stairs (Italian: scale) giving access from the street; or Buon Pastore, since in the 19th century the church and the annexed cloister were entrusted to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Angers. The church was built in 1619 thanks to the subsidies of the Duke of Bavaria and of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the brother of Pope Urban VIII; the cloister dates back to 1615 and was founded by the carmelite Domenico di Gesù e Maria "in order to take the indecent women away from sin" (Armellini). The interior of the church shows a single nave and has been altered in the 19th century with a quite neoclassical style. The high altar housed a painting portraying Jesus bearing the cross, now replaced with a Crucifix by Francesco Troppa; the same author also painted the Annunciation on the right altar. Another noteworthy work is Mary Magdalene by Ciccio da Napoli. The annexed cloister, enlarged in the 19th century by Virginio Vespignani, always maintained its function as a redemption or rehabilitation house; in 1950, when the nuns left the institute, the building became a detachment of the women's prison for misdemeanors. This use ended in 1979 and now the cloister houses the Casa Internazionale delle Donne.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Santa Croce alla Lungara (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Santa Croce alla Lungara
Vicolo della Penitenza, Rome Municipio Roma I

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N 41.8945 ° E 12.466 °
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Santa Croce alla Lungara

Vicolo della Penitenza
00120 Rome, Municipio Roma I
Lazio, Italy
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Trastevere S. Croce alla Lungara
Trastevere S. Croce alla Lungara
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San Giacomo alla Lungara
San Giacomo alla Lungara

San Giacomo alla Lungara is a church in Rome (Italy), in the Rione Trastevere, facing on Via della Lungara. It is also called San Giacomo in Settimiano or in Settignano, due to its vicinity to Porta Settimiana, built by Septimius Severus and included by Aurelianus within the city walls. The church has medieval origins: it probably dates back to the papacy of Leo IV in 9th century. However, the former documents attesting its existence are papal bulls promulgated in 1198 and 1228, when the church was declared a branch of St. Peter's Basilica by Pope Innocent III. In 12th century Pope Innocent IV allowed it to the Sylvestrine Congregation; in 1620 the Vatican Chapter entrusted the church to the Franciscans and then to the Penitent Nuns, which, in 1644, charged Luigi Arrigucci (1575–1644) with the restoration of the building: because of these restorations, the church lost its basilican layout with three naves and became a single nave church with coffering on the ceiling. In the same period the nuns also built the annexed cloister, devoted to the prostitutes wishing to change their life; the cloister was demolished in 1887, during the building of the Lungotevere. In the same period the church, after having suffered 15 years of abandon and risked itself the destruction, was finally renovated. Across the Lungotevere it is possible to see the Romanesque towerbell, dating back to the 12th century and the only surviving Medieval feature. The interior of the church displays a single nave. The most famous work of art is the Memorial to Ippolito Merenda by Gian Lorenzo Bernini: a gravestone with the shape of a puckered sheet, sustained with both hands and teeth by a winged skeleton. The high altar houses a painting by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli portraying James the Apostle.

Regina Coeli (prison)
Regina Coeli (prison)

Regina Coeli (Latin for '"Queen of Heaven"'; Italian: Carcere di Regina Coeli [ˈkartʃere di reˈdʒiːna ˈtʃɛːli]) is the best known prison in the city of Rome. Previously a Catholic convent (hence the name), it was built in 1654 in the rione of Trastevere. It started to serve as a prison in 1881. The construction was started by Pope Urban VIII in 1642, but his death stopped the works and the complex remained unfinished. Between 1810 and 1814 the former Catholic convent was confiscated by Napoleonic French forces, who suppressed all religious orders in territories under French control during the Napoleonic Wars. While the complex was returned to Carmelite nuns shortly afterwards, they abandoned the convent in 1873. The newly established Kingdom of Italy confiscated the complex and decided to turn it into a prison in 1881. The refurbishing was carried out by Carlo Morgini and was completed only in 1900. A new complex housing a prison for women, dubbed "Le Mantellate" was erected nearby on a place also formerly occupied by a Catholic convent. Regina Coeli replaced the Carceri Nuove as Rome's primary jail. While serving as a prison and jail, since 1902 the Regina Coeli also served as a police academy and one of the first schools in Italy to focus on forensics and criminal anthropology. During the times of Fascist Italy the prison served for detention of political prisoners. In 1943, the Nazis led by Erich Priebke rounded up and imprisoned over 1,000 Roman Jews in the Regina Coeli prison. Priebke also perpetrated the Ardeatine Massacre, many of the prisoners at Via Tasso and Regina Coeli prison who happened to be available at the time were massacred by the Nazis at the Fosse Ardeatine to fill the numerical quota set as retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 German SS policemen. Pankratius Pfeiffer, Superior General of the Salvatorians and "the Angel of Rome", is said to have visited the prisons of Regina Coeli and Via Tasso everyday during the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1943 and 1944, returning with a freed prisoner, since he acted as an intermediary between Pope Pius XII and the German authorities. In this capacity, he rescued hundreds of Jews and others in Rome from execution by the Nazis. He also persuaded the Nazis to spare several Italian cities from destruction during their retreat from Italy. On December 26, 1958, Pope John XXIII visited the prison, washing the feet of several prisoners. This act was repeated by Pope Paul VI in 1964, Pope John Paul II in 2000, and Pope Francis in 2018.In 1979, the prison was bombed by the Movimento Rivoluzionario Popolare, a neo-fascist organisation. During the theft of the Santo Bambino of Aracoeli on 1 February 1994, inmates at the Regina Coeli prison wrote a petition to their anonymous "colleagues", asking for its return. In modern times the prison complex can house up to 900 detainees.