Sant'Andrea delle Fratte

Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
Basic information
Location	Rome, Italy
Geographic coordinates
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Website	santandreadellefratte.it
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Francesco Borromini and Mattia de Rossi
Architectural type	Church
Architectural style	Baroque
Groundbreaking	1604
Completed	1826
Specifications

Sant'Andrea delle Fratte is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis is Ennio Antonelli.

The current church was built over a pre-existing one, erected in 1192, called infra hortes ("between orchards", whence the name fratte, "woods") for it was located in a countryside area. It was the national church of the Scottish people in Rome, until 1585, when Pope Sixtus V assigned it to the Minim friars of Saint Francis of Paola.

In 1604 the construction of the new church was begun, to the design of Gaspare Guerra. The project, halted eight years later, was revamped in 1653 by Francesco Borromini, who is responsible of the apse, the tambour of the cupola and the square campanile with four orders. After his death, the construction was continued by Mattia De Rossi. The late Renaissance-style façade, with two orders divided by pilasters, was completed in 1826.

The interior has a single nave. The decoration of the cupola is by Pasquale Marini. Along the nave in the first chapel is a wooden ‘’tempietto’’ (temple) (1674) painted by Borgognone and on the wall is a “Baptism of Christ” of Ludovico Gimignani. In the third chapel is the funeral monument of Cardinal Pierluigi Carafa sculpted by Pietro Bracci. In the cloister, the lunettes are frescoed with stories from the Life of Saint Francesco by Marini, Francesco Cozza, and Filippo Gherardi. In the transept, the altar (1736) was designed by Filippo Barigioni, the altarpiece of Saint Francis of Paola was painted by Paris Nogari, the stuccoed angels were added by Giovanni Battista Maini. The presbytery dome has a fresco of the Multiplication of the loaves and fishes by Marini. Behind the altar, is a Crucifixion of Sant’Andrea by Giovanni Battista Lenardi, the Entombment of Sant’Andrea by Francesco Trevisani, and a Death of Saint Andrew by Lazzaro Baldi.

At the sides of the presbytery are Angels (1668-1699) designed by Bernini for the Ponte Sant'Angelo, but later moved here and replaced on the bridge with copies (of the two, only the "Angel with the Crown of Thorns"). The altar in the left transept was designed by Luigi Vanvitelli and Giuseppe Valadier with an altarpiece of Saints Anne, Young John the Baptist, and Mary by Giuseppe Bottani.

In the third chapel on the left is a Madonna of the Miracle by Domenico Bartolini, to commemorate the place where, on 20 January 1842, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a young Jewish man, Maria Alphonse Ratisbonne, leading him to convert to Catholicism. He later founded the Congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion (Our Lady of Sion), a group of Catholic priests, lay brothers and Religious Sisters dedicated to work for the conversion of Jews to Catholicism. In honor of this apparition, the pews of the church are oriented to this altar.

Burials

• Felice Giani
• Angelika Kauffmann
• Orest Kiprensky
• Petar Parchevich

Gallery

• 

  Angel with the Crown of Thorns by Bernini

• 

  Angel with the Superscription by Bernini

External links

• Nyborg