Info and reservations of guided tours:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROME - ITALY
Tel. +39-06/85.30.17.58 - Fax +39-06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme is a basilica in Rome. It is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome.

According to tradition, the basilica was consecrated around 325 to house the Passion Relics brought to Rome from the Holy Land by St. Helena of Constantinople, mother of Constantine I. At that time, the basilica floor was covered with soil from Jerusalem, thus acquiring the title in Gerusalem.

History

The church was built around a room in St. Helena's imperial palace, Palazzo Sessoriano, which she adapted to a chapel around the year 320. Some decades later the chapel was turned into a true basilica, called Heleniana or Sessoriana. After falling into neglect, the church was restored by Pope Lucius II (1144-1145). In the occasion it assumed a Romanesque appearance, with three naves, a belfry and a porch.

The church was also modified in the 16th century, but it assumed its current Baroque appearance under Benedict XIV (1740-1758). New streets were also built to connect the church to the two other Roman basilicas linked to Jesus' life, San Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Maria Maggiore. The facade of Santa Croce, designed by Corrado Giaquinto and Domenico Gregorini, shares the typical late Roman Baroque taste with the former basilicas.

Info and reservations of guided tours:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROME - ITALY
Tel. +39-06/85.30.17.58 - Fax +39-06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it

Passion Relicts

The famous relicts, whose authenticity is disputed, are now housed in a Chapel (the Cappella delle Reliquie), built in 1930 by architect Florestano di Fausto. They include: a part of the Elogium or Titulus Crucis, i.e. the panel which was hanged to the Christ's Cross; two thorns of his crown; an incomplete nail; and three small wooden pieces of the True Cross itself. A much larger piece of the holy cross was brought from Santa Croce in Gerusalemme to St. Peter's Basilica on instruction of Pope Urban VIII in 1629. It is kept nearby the statue of St. Helena, completed by Andrea Bolgi in 1639. In Santa Croce there are also a finger of St. Thomas and fragments of the grotto of Bethlehem.

Relics enshrined at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in the Chapel of the Holy Relics include:

* A large fragment of the Good Thief's cross;
* The bone of an index finger, said to be the finger of St. Thomas that he placed in the wounds of the Risen Christ
* A single reliquary containing small pieces of: the Scourging Pillar (to which Christ was tied as he was beaten); the Holy Sepulchre (Christ's tomb); and the crib of Jesus
* Two thorns from the Crown of Thorns. It is said that the plant from which these came is a species of thorn bush that only grows in Israel at present days.
* Three fragments from the True Cross
* One nail used in the Crucifixion.
* One third of the Title of the Cross, discovered in the church in 1492. The fragment shows the word "Nazarene" written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

Chapel of St. Helena

The relicts were once in the ancient St. Helena's Chapel, which is partly under ground level. The founder of the church had some earth from Calvary dispersed here, whence the name in Hierusalem of the basilica. In the vault is a mosaic designed by Melozzo da Forlì (before 1485), depicting Jesus Blessing, Histories of the Cross and various saints. The altar has a huge statue of St. Helena, which was obtained from an ancient statue of Juno discovered at Ostia. Mediaeval pilgrim guides noted that the chapel was considered so holy, that access to the chapel by women was forbidden.

Other artworks

The apse of church includes frescoes telling the Legends of the True Cross, attributed to Melozzo, to Antoniazzo Romano and Marco Palmezzano. The Museum of the Basilica houses a mosaic icon from the 14th century: according to the legend, Pope Gregory I had it made after a vision of Christ. Notable is also the tomb of Cardinal Francis Quinoñes, by Jacopo Sansovino (1536).

Peter Paul Rubens, who had arrived in Rome by way of Mantua in 1601, was commissioned by Archduke Albert of Austria to paint an altarpiece with three panels for the chapel St. Helena. Two of these paintings, St. Helena with the True Cross and The Mocking of Christ, are now in Grasse, France. The third, The Elevation of the Cross, is lost. Before his marriage, the archduke had been made to the cardinal in this church.

Info and reservations of guided tours:

Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROME - ITALY
Tel. +39-06/85.30.17.58 - Fax +39-06/85.30.17.56
Email :  service@romeguide.it