San Lorenzo in Damaso

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San Lorenzo in Damaso (Saint Lawrence in the House of Damasus) is a basilica church in Rome, one of several dedicated to the Roman deacon and martyr Saint Lawrence. Known since antiquity (synod of Pope Symmachus, 499) as Titulus Damasi, according to tradition San Lorenzo in Damaso was built by Pope Damasus I in his own house, in the 380s.

Donato Bramante rebuilt the church in the 15th century, by order of Cardinal Raffaele Riario, within the restoration works of the close by Palazzo della Cancelleria. The last restoration was necessary after a fire that damaged the basilica in 1944.

The first chapel to the right houses a Virgin with Saints Filippo Neri and Nicolò by Sebastiano Conca, while the ceiling is frescoed with Eternity appears to San Nicola by Corrado Giaquinto. The first chapel to the left has a Last Supper by Vincenzo Berrettini.

In the first nave to the left, are statues of Saints Francesco Saverio and Carlo Borromeo by Stefano Maderno. On the right nave, there is a monument to Gabriella di Savoia Massimo by Pietro Tenerani. The presbitery, modified by Bernini, is the altarpiece of Saints and Coronation of Mary by Federico Zuccari. In the nave to the left of the presbitery, is the chapel of the SS.Concezione completed and frescoed (1635-38) by Pietro da Cortona. Other works include the monument of cardinal Trevisan (1505), the Madonna delle Gioie, attributed to Nicolò Circignani, and the monument of Annibal Caro (1566), by Giovanni Antonio Dosio.

The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Laurentii in Damaso is Antonio Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid.

[edit] References

• "San Lorenzo in Damaso", by Chris Nyborg.
• Pietro da Cortona, A Design for a Quarantore at San Lorenzo in Damaso, c.1632