Casa Santa Maria
Coordinates: 41°53′58″N 12°28′59″E / 41.89944°N 12.48306°E
The Casa Santa Maria (in full, Casa Santa Maria dell'Umiltà) is a residence in Rome, Italy that serves English-speaking priests who are sent by their dioceses for graduate level studies in the city. It is a part of the Pontifical North American College, and served as its main campus from its founding in 1859 until the construction of a new campus on the Janiculum Hill in 1953. It also houses the Bishops' Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican.
The buildings that currently make up the Pontifical North American College's Casa Santa Maria encompass a large area, trapezoidal in shape, giving on to the Via dell'Umiltà, the Via dell'Archetto, the Vicolo del Monticello, and the Piazza della Pilotta. At first glance the buildings seem to be one single construction, but they are not; their external coherency is only the result of a fairly recent restructuring. To found the monastery that was originally housed on the site, multiple houses were purchased along the Via dell'Archetto. After the 1607 foundation date, additions to the property were made in 1641, 1681, and 1737. American College historian Robert McNamara describes the complex in 1859 as "a large building, rangy and haphazard in form, making no claim to distinction in style, but combining under one roof quarters easily adaptable to housing a hundred or more young seminarians."
Henry Brann, a historian of the American College, describes the building in the following terms (writing in 1910):
The building itself is of the ordinary Roman style, simple and unadorned, but solid and substantial, and with no attempt at external ornamentation. The plain exterior of buff color would give no idea of the use which it serves, were it not for the facade of the church adjoining. The interior is that which is usual in a convent, college, or monastery, with floors of tiling or brick. [...] In the beautiful garden attached to the College are many rare plants and a number of orange trees. Along the base of its walls lie fragments of columns, broken inscriptions, friezes, and excavated forms, which excite the curiosity of the archaeologist, and may contain interesting information for him.
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