San Girolamo dei Croati

Saint Jerome of the Croats is the national Catholic church of Croatia on Via Tomacelli in the Campus Martius of Rome. It is now a chapel of the Pontifical Croatian College of Saint Jerome in Rome and is only open to visitors by arrangement with the College.

Frontal section
San Girolamo dei Croati
St. Jerome of the Croatians (in English)
Sancti Hieronymi Croatorum (in Latin)
Saint Jerome of the Croats
Click on the map for a fullscreen view
41°54′18″N 12°28′33″E
LocationVia Tomacelli 132, Rome
CountryItaly
DenominationRoman Catholic
TraditionRoman Rite
History
StatusTitular church,
national church
DedicationJerome
Consecrated1587
Architecture
Architectural typeChurch
Groundbreaking1585
Completed1587
Clergy
Cardinal protectorJosip Bozanic

Name

It is also known as "St. Jerome of the Illyrians" (Italian: San Girolamo degli Illirici), and was formerly known as "St. Jerome of the Slavs" (Italian: San Girolamo degli Schiavoni).[1]

History
San Girolamo degli Schiavoni in a 1667/69 engraving

It was first built in 1585-1587 for refugees from areas ruled by the Turks, and dedicated to St Jerome, who was from Dalmatia (former Roman Illyricum).[2] The small, ruined church of Santa Marina de Posterula had been given to them in 1453 (the year of the Fall of Constantinople) by Pope Nicholas V, for the construction of a church and hospice. It once faced the port built on the Tiber River, called the Porto di Ripetta.[3]

The confraternity was renamed Congregatio or "Society of St. Jerome" in 1544.

Architecture

Around 1588, Pope Sixtus V, who as Cardinal Montalvo had served as cardinal-protector, commissioned Martino Longhi the Elder to completely rebuild the church and add a bell tower.[4] The late Renaissance façade is of travertine, decorated with the pope’s emblems.

The fresco on the interior cupola was done in a Trompe-l'œil effect by Giovanni Guerra around 1590. The Evangelists on the pendentives are by Paolo Guidotti. Andrea Lilio provided frescoes for the transept side vaults. Most of them had previously done work for Sixtus at the Vatican. Frescoes in the nave were completed by Pietro Gagliardi in 1847 from a bequest of Pope Pius IX.[5]

The church underwent restoration in 2018 after the earthquakes of two years prior.

Burials

Early burials took place in the guesthouse cemetery.[6]

Photograph of the Porto di Ripetta in 1865

List of Cardinal Protectors

References
  1. "Church of San Girolamo dei Croati", Turismo Roma, Major Events, Sport, Tourism and Fashion Department
  2. Interior of San Girolamo degli illirici
  3. Blunt, Anthony. Guide to Baroque Rome, Granada, 1982, p. 254-5
  4. "Chiesa di San Girolamo dei Croati", Religiana.com
  5. "Gagliardi, Pietro", Treccani
  6. Fine, John V.A.. When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods, University of Michigan Press, 2010, p. 426ISBN 9780472025602
  7. Stoy, Manfred (1979). "Lucius, Ivan". In Mathias Bernath, Felix von Schroeder (ed.). Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. München: Oldenbourg Verlag. pp. 50–51. ISBN 978-3-486-48991-0.

Sources


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