The basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme is one of the seven churches in Rome that is part of the traditional pilgrimage itinerary made famous by St. Philip Neri. It was built starting from the 4th century at the Palazzo del Sessorium, the residence of Sant'Elena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, near the Lateran. The basilica was not built to honor the memory of the martyrs, as was tradition, but exclusively to preserve a part of the Cross of Jesus, together with other relics of the Passion which, according to tradition, Saint Helena had it transported to Rome on her return from her trip to the Holy Land, in 325.
It was therefore conceived from the beginning as a large reliquary, intended to preserve precious testimonies of the passion of Jesus. The basilica is called "in Jerusalem" due to the presence of consecrated earth on Mount Calvary which was placed at the base of the foundations, earth transported on ships together with the same relics of the Cross. For this reason the church was called, since the Middle Ages, simply "Hierusalem", and, for popular devotion, visiting this basilica meant setting foot in the holy city of Jerusalem itself.
It has a late 10th century convent on both sides; the eight-story Romanesque bell tower in the background was built 150 years later.
The structure has been remodeled at least six times, the last in the mid-18th century by the Roman architect Domenico Gregorini and his Sicilian colleague Pietro Passalacqua. It was they who created the theatrical façade, in Borrominesque style with concave and convex surfaces, and crowned by the statues of the Evangelists, Constantine and Saint Helena. Foundations and walls remain part of the original structure.
In 1870, after the breach of Porta Pia and the fall of the State of the Church, the entire complex of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was confiscated and confiscated in the assets of the Italian State, and was never returned to the Holy See. The monks were allowed to stay and live in the monastery and officiate Holy Masses in the basilica, but, for some decades, part of the monastery was used as a barracks. The basilica and the entire complex of Santa Croce are still owned by the Italian state.
The entrance to the church has an elegant elliptical atrium, with small dome and columns of the original portico of the church set against pilasters.
Gigantic ancient granite columns divide the interior. The wooden ceiling features an early eighteenth-century fresco with the Virgin presenting Saint Helena and Constantine to the Trinity, the work of the illustrious exponent of the Neapolitan school, Corrado Giaquinto. The beautiful Cosmatesque floor dates back to the 12th century.
Remarkable is the painting by Carlo Maratta (17th-18th century) above the second altar of the right aisle: The antipope Victor IV led by St. Bernard to submit to Pope Innocent II (episode of the incessant struggle between popes, anti-popes and their supporters secular for the dominion of Rome in the Middle Ages).
In the presbytery there is an eighteenth-century ciborium and the basalt urn that houses the remains of San Cesario di Terracina (tutelary saint of the Roman emperors, the "Divi Cesari") and of Sant'Anastasio martyr; in the center of the apse is a tabernacle in marble and gilded bronze (by Carlo Maderno) and the splendid tomb of Cardinal Quiñones, the work of Jacopo Sansovino.
The frescoes in the apse are attributed to Antoniazzo Romano and Marco Palmezzano. The pictorial cycle tells the story of the discovery of the Cross according to the Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varazze, which was very popular in the Middle Ages.
The basilica houses numerous relics including some traditionally linked to the Passion of Jesus. These are three fragments of the True Cross, part of the crown of thorns, a sacred nail and the Titulus crucis. Apart from the latter, which was found only in 1492, the other relics have been preserved continuously since the 4th century; these are the most ancient relics of which there is any trace.
Over the centuries other relics of lesser importance have been added to the relics of the Passion of Christ, some of uncertain origin, such as the fragments of the Bethlehem grotto and the Holy Sepulcher and the column of the Flagellation, the patibulum of the Good Thief and the phalanx of the finger of St. Thomas.
Since 1999, Antonietta Meo, declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 2007, has been buried in a space adjacent to the chapel of the relics of the Basilica.
Wikipedia source: it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilic...
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