San Marcello al Corso

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San Marcello al Corso is a church in Rome, devoted to Pope Marcellus. It is located in via del Corso, the ancient via Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo.

San Marcello al Corso, facade by Carlo Fontana.

While the tradition holds that the church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus (d. 309), it is known that the Titulus Marcelli was already present in 418, when Pope Boniface I was elected here. The "Septiformis" litany, commanded by Pope Gregory I in 590, saw the men moving from San Marcello.

Pope Adrian I, in the 8th century, built a church on the same place, which is currently under the modern church.

The history of San Marcello saw many lows. It held for three days, in the apse, the hanged body of Cola di Rienzo, in 1354. On 22 May 1519 a fire destroyed the church. The money collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the landsknechts, pillaging the city during the Sack of Rome (1527). Antonio da Sangallo the Younger rebuilt the church, but a Tiber flood damaged it in 1530. It was only in 1592 that the church was completed, and later Carlo Fontana built the facade.

St. Philip Benizi refuses the papal tiara, Antonio Raggi, façade of San Marcello.

Under the main altar, decorated with 12th century opus sectile, are kept the relics of several saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus as well as Digna and Emerita. The last chapel on the left is dedicated to St. Philip Benizi. The late-baroque decoration contains sculptures by Francesco Cavallini and reliefs by Ercole Ferrata and Antonio Raggi. The first chapel on the left has the double tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Michiel and his grandson Antonio Orso sculpted by Jacopo Sansovino.

Behind the facade is a Crucifixion (1613) by Giovanni Battista Ricci. Along the first chapel is a Annunciation by Lazzaro Baldi; in the second Martirio delle Ss. Degna e Merita (1727) of Pietro Barbieri; in the third “Madonna with the Child”, a fresco of late 1300, episodes of the life of the Virgin by Francisco Salviati, fresco and painted of G.B.Ricci; in the fourth chapel a Creation of Eve and the evangelists Mark and John, frescoes by Perin del Vaga, Matthew and Luke begun by Perin del Vaga and finish to you from Daniele da Volterra. Inside the precious ciborio (1691) on design of Carlo Bizzaccheri; in the fifth monument for the cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci (1726) by Pietro Bracci and a monument of cardinal Camillo Paolucci by Tommaso Righi. [1776] wall paintings of Aureliano Milani. On the left nave in the fifth chapel San Filippo Benizi (1725) by Pier Leone Ghezzi; in the fourth “Conversion of Saint Paul” (1560) by Federico Zuccari and his brother Taddeo and sides of History of Saint Paul. Inside of the chapel has busts of Muzio, Roberto, Lelio Frangipane, and Alessandro Algardi(1630-40). In the third chapel on the left “Doloroso” by Pietro Paolo Naldini, Sacrifice of Issac and discovery of Moses by Domenico Corvi; in the first Madonna and seven Saints by Agostino Masucci.