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Santa Maria in Cosmedin

Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin
Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin (Italian)
Santa maria in cosmedin2.jpg
Medieval façade of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, with the bell tower.
Basic information
Location Rome, Italy
Geographic coordinates 41°53′17″N 12°28′54″E / 41.88806°N 12.48167°E / 41.88806; 12.48167Coordinates: 41°53′17″N 12°28′54″E / 41.88806°N 12.48167°E / 41.88806; 12.48167
Affiliation Roman Catholic
Rite Greek-Melkite Rite, Latin Rite
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Minor basilica
Leadership Msgr. Antonio Riccardo Menegaldo
Website Official Website
Architectural description
Architectural type Church
Completed 11th century
Specifications
Direction of façade Northwest
Length 40 metres (130 ft)
Width 20 metres (66 ft)
Width (nave) 10 metres (33 ft)

The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin or de Schola Graeca) is a minor basilica church in Rome, Italy. It is located in the rione of Ripa.

The church was built in the 8th century, during the Byzantine Papacy, over the remains of the Templum Herculis Pompeiani in the Forum Boarium and of the Statio annonae, one of the food distribution centres of ancient Rome (another is to be found at the Theatre of Balbus). A deaconry was a place where charitable distributions were given to the poor, and it is appropriate that such an institution would have been built near or at a station of the Roman annona.

Since it was located near many Byzantine structures, in 7th century this church was called de Schola Graeca, and a close street is still called della Greca. Greek monks escaping iconoclastic persecutions decorated the church around 782, when pope Adrian I promoted its reconstruction; the church was built with a nave and two aisles and a portico. Because of its beauty, the church received the adjective cosmedin (from Greek kosmidion), ornate. A sacristy and an oratory dedicated to St. Nicholas were added in the 9th century, by order of Pope Nicholas I, who also built a papal residence, but they were destroyed in the Sack of Rome (1084) by Robert Guiscard's Norman troops.


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