The churches of Rome

Rome has more than 900 churches. Here are the best.

For more info:
www.turismoroma.it

Viator.com tours of Roman churches
• Christian Rome Afternoon Tour
• Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
Private Tour: Vatican Museums and St Peter's Art History Walking Tour

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St. Peter's Basilica - The capital of Christendom and most magnificent basilica on Earth is a late-Renaissance/early-baroque masterpiece of architecture and decoration, an artistic collaborations across the centuries between the likes of Michelangelo and Bernini, and something of a personal pulpit for the man who lives next door: the Pope...

An audience with the Pope - Unlike the Middle Ages, when you had to have excellent connections to see the Bishop of Rome (that's the Pope's real title), these days papal audiences are pretty easy to come by—so long as you're willing to share the moment with several thousand other audience members....

Churches near the Forum and Colosseum

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San Clemente - This early medieval church's mosaics, marbles, and Masolino frescoes would be worth a visit in of themselves. But the real show here is that you can head downstairs to see Rome's layer effect at work, exploring church layered upon church layered upon pagan temple to Mithras and ancient Roman streets and houses...

Santa Maria in Cosmedin - It's not the glittering mosaics, 12th-century bell tower, or cosmatesque pavement inside that draw the crowds to this medieval church; it's the ancient Roman sewer-covering inside the portico, a grotesque face with a gaping mouth called the "Mouth of Truth," into which Gregory Peck-wannabes trust their hands and brazenly tell lies while Audrey Hepburn types shriek with horror as the men pretend that the mouth chomps off their hands for fibbing. Rent Roman Holiday and you'll see what I mean...

Santa Maria Maggiore - One of Rome's four great ancient basilicas was built in the 5th century and sports fantastic, glittering mosaics...

San Pietro in Vincoli - The rusty chains under the altar are supposedly those that imprisoned St. Peter, but what everyone really comes here to see is Michelangelo's Moses...

Santa Maria in Aracoeli - The medieval Italian version of the Stairmaster: clambering up every last steep one of this church's 124 steps to see the miraculous baby Jesus statue inside...

Santa Sabina - This gorgeous, rarely visited church on the Aventine Hill retains some of the earliest depictions of Christianity's major artistic themes in the world on its carved 5th-century doors...

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Churches in the Historic Center (near Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, and Piazza del Popolo)

The Pantheon - The only ancient Roman temple to survive the millennia intact is also one of the most amazing architectural spaces in Rome, an expansive cylinder swaddled in precious marbles, topped by a vast concrete hemisphere, and pierced by a wide shaft of sunlight from the oculus at the center...

Santa Maria del Popolo - This little gem of a church at the very northern edge of the city center is one of my favorite in all of Rome, and it acts as a primer of Italy's Renaissance and early baroque movements, with works by Caravaggio, Bernini, Raphael, Pinturicchio, Sansovino, Bramante, Guillaume de Marcillat, Annibale Carracci, and more...

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva - Rome's only Gothic church, fronted by a whimsical Bernini statue of a baby elephant carrying a tiny Egyptian obelisk. Inside are a chapel frescoed by Filippo Lippi and Michelangelo's muscular Risen Christ...

San Luigi dei Francesi - A trio of Caravaggio paintings line the back left chapel of France's national church in Rome...

Sant'Agostino - Another Caravaggio, Adoration of the Shepherds (though frankly, they look a bit more like janitors), decorates the church's left aisle. Also in this church are a fresco by Raphael and some carving by Sansovino...

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza - Borromini's masterpiece of a baroque church—a complex interplay of concave and convex lines topped by a swirly elliptical lantern that looks for all the world like soft-serve ice cream—is hidden away in the courtyard of a nondescript university building, making your "discovery" of it that much more surprising and special...

San Ignazio di Loyola - A stage-set of a piazza out front leads to a church interior that is not all it seems to be—watch the dome carefully as you walk up the aisle towards it...

Sant'Andrea della Valle - Opera buffs will remember this as the setting for the first act in Tosca, though its baroque architecture and Domenichino paintings are also a draw...

Santa Maria Immacolata Concezione - No one comes here for the church itself, they come of the creepy Capuchin Crypt underneath, where the walls of four chapels are mosaicked with the bones of dead monks...

Churches in Trastevere & Farther Afield

Santa Maria in Trastevere - Rome's first church named for the Virgin, its frescoed façade floodlit at night, the apse covered with mosaics by Pietro Cavallini, its cosmatesque floor inlaid with swirling patterns of marble chips...

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere - You'd never know from the bland baroque interior that, by slipping a modest bribe to the nuns, you can get inside the cloistered section to see one of Rome's last remaining medieval masterpieces of fresco by Pietro Cavallini...

San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome's cathedral—no, it isn't St. Peter's—is one of the great basilican churches of Rome, with a Giotto fresco and some lovely quiet cloisters...

Scala Santa - Across the street from Rome's cathedral (San Giovanni in Laterano), is an unassuming, small, chapel-like structure housing the Scala Santa, the "Holy Staircase"of 28 steps of Tyrian marble that legend holds were the actual staircase of Pilate's house, which Jesus descended after being condemned, brought back to Rome by St. Helena...

San Paolo Fuori le Mura - One of the four great basilicas in Rome, badly damaged by fire but beautifully restored, and well worth the trek out here for its lovely cloisters...

San Francesco a Ripa - Bernini was the master of racy, nearly erotic religious themes...

Churches Near Termini train station

Santa Maria Maggiore - One of Rome's four great ancient basilicas was built in the 5th century and sports fantastic, glittering mosaics...

Santa Maria degli Angeli - Michelangelo was commissioned to take a section of the ancient Baths of Diocletian and adapt it to become a church. It's a shame a later architect came along and moved the entrance over to one of the transept arms and spoiled the effect...

Santa Maria della Vittoria - The last chapel on the left is a theater stage with the commissioners and the sculptor, Bernini, looking from box seats down on the main scene below, where a smirking angel is about to pierce St. Theresa in Ecstasy (and what a very erotic ecstasy it is) with a glowing spear of Heavenly light...

Tips

Attend church services in Rome: In the 'Tips" section of every church described on this site, I'll provide the regular hours of mass.
Book a tour: Our partners at Viator.com offer a Christian Rome Afternoon Tour that visits several important churches.

Other free sights in Rome (free sights, parks, markets, experiences, and sometimes even the Vatican Museums)
Attending a papal audience
More sights by category: Museums, ancient sites / ruins, piazze & fountains, Reid's list
Top sights in Rome
Free food at Roman bars
Discounts on Rome sightseeing
Sights in Rome
Rome homepage

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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