San Marcello al Corso
| San Marcello St. Marcellus (English) S. Marcelli (Latin) |
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| Basic information | |
| Location |
 Rome, Italy
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| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| District | Lazio |
| Province | Rome |
| Country | Italy |
| Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Titular church |
| Leadership | Giuseppe Betori |
| Architectural type | Church |
San Marcello al Corso, a church in Rome, Italy, is a titular church whose cardinal-protector normally holds the (intermediary) rank of cardinal-priest.
The church, dedicated to Pope Marcellus I, is located just inset from Via del Corso, in ancient times called via Lata, and which now connects Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. It stands diagonal from the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata and two doors from the Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso.
While the tradition holds that the church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus I (d. 309), it is known that the Titulus Marcelli was present no later than 418, when Pope Boniface I was elected there. The "Septiformis" litany, commanded by Pope Gregory I in 590, saw the men moving from San Marcello.
Pope Adrian I, in the 8th century, built a church on the same place, which is currently under the modern church.
The corpse of Cola di Rienzo was held in the church for three days after his execution in 1354. On 22 May 1519, a fire destroyed the church. The money collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the landsknechts, who were pillaging the city during the Sack of Rome (1527). The original plan to rebuild the church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, who fled the city during the Sack and never returned to finish it. The work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who rebuilt the church, but a Tiber flood damaged it again in 1530. It was only in 1592–1597 that the church was completed with a facade by Carlo Fontana, commissioned by Monsignor Marcantonio Cataldi Boncompagni. The exterior travertine statues were sculpted by Francesco Cavallini, and the stucco bas-relief over the entrance, with depicts San Filippo Benizio, was created by Antonio Raggi. Benizio had been a member of the Servite order.
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