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S. Andrea della Valle

Church of St. Andrew of the Valley
Sant'Andrea della Valle (in Italian)
S. Andreæ Apostoli de Valle (in Latin)
Sant Andrea della Valle Roma adjusted.JPG
The Rococo façade of Sant'Andrea della Valle.
Basic information
Location Rome, Italy
Geographic coordinates 41°53′45″N 12°28′28″E / 41.89583°N 12.47444°E / 41.89583; 12.47444Coordinates: 41°53′45″N 12°28′28″E / 41.89583°N 12.47444°E / 41.89583; 12.47444
Affiliation Roman Catholic
Province Diocese of Rome
Region Lazio
Country Italy
Year consecrated 1650
Leadership Dieudonné Nzapalainga, CSSR
Architectural description
Architectural type Church
Architectural style Renaissance
Groundbreaking 1590
Completed 1650

Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, 6 at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele (facing facade) and Corso Rinascimento.

A church was initially planned when Donna Costanza Piccolomini d'Aragona, duchess of Amalfi and descendant of the family of Pope Pius II, bequeathed her palace and the adjacent church of San Sebastiano in central Rome to the Theatine order for construction of a new church. Since Amalfi's patron was Saint Andrew, the church was planned in his honor. Work initially started around 1590 under the designs of Giacomo della Porta and Pier Paolo Olivieri, and under the patronage of Cardinal Gesualdo. With the previous patron's death, direction of the church passed to Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto, nephew of Pope Sixtus V. Work restarted by 1608, financed by what was then an enormous endowment of over 150,000 gold scudi, and with a more grandiose plan designed mainly by Carlo Maderno. The interior of the church was completed by 1650, with some changes added by Francesco Grimaldi.

The fresco decoration of Sant'Andrea's dome was one of the largest commissions of its day. The work was disputed by two Carracci pupils, Giovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino. In 1608, Lanfranco had been chosen by Cardinal Alessandro, but the Ludovisi papacy of Pope Gregory XV favored the Bolognese Domenichino. In the end, both artists were employed, and Lanfranco's lavish dome decoration (completed 1627) set the model for such decorations for the following decades. This dome was for a long time the third largest dome in Rome, after the Basilica of St Peter and the Pantheon.


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