Santa Maria Sopra Minerva - History

History

In Roman times there were three temples in what is now the area surrounding the basilica and former convent buildings: the Minervium, built by Gnaeus Pompey in honour of the goddess Minerva about 50 B.C., referred to as Delubrum Minervae; the Iseum dedicated to Isis, and the Serapeum dedicated to Serapis. Details of the temple to Minerva are not known but recent investigations indicate that a small round Minervium once stood a little further to east on the Piazza of the Collegio Romano. In 1665 an Egyptian obelisk was found, buried in the garden of the Dominican cloister adjacent to the church. Several other small obelisks were found at different times near the church, known as the Obelisci Isei Campensis, which were probably brought to Rome during the first century and grouped in pairs, with others, at the entrances of the temple of Isis. There are other Roman survivals in the crypt.

The ruined temple is likely to have lasted until the reign of Pope Zachary (741-752), who finally Christianized the site, offering it to Basilian nuns from Constantinople who maintained an oratorio there dedicated to the "Virgin of Minervum.". The structure he commissioned has disappeared.

In 1255 Pope Alexander IV established a community of converted women on the site. A decade later this community was transferred to the Roman Church of San Pancrazio thereby allowing the Dominicans to establish a convent of friars and a studium conventuale there. The Friars were on site beginning in 1266 but took official possession of the Church in 1275. The ensemble of buildings that formed around the church and convent came to be known as the 'insula sapientae" or "insula dominicana' (island of wisdom or Dominican island).

The Dominicans began building the present Gothic church in 1280 modelling it on their church in Florence Santa Maria Novella. Architectural plans were probably drawn up during the pontificate of Nicholas III by two Dominican friars, Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi. With the help of funds contributed by Boniface VIII and the faithful the side aisles were completed in the 1300s.

In 1288 the theology component of the provincial curriculum for the education of the friars was relocated from the studium provinciale at the Roman basilica of Santa Sabina to the studium conventuale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva which was redesignated as a studium particularis theologiae. At various times in its history this studium served as a studium generale for the Roman province of the Order.

In 1453 church interior construction was finally completed when Cardinal Juan Torquemada ordered that the main nave be covered by a vault that reduced the overall projected height of the church. In the same year of 1453 Count Francesco Orsini sponsored the construction of the facade at his own expense. However work on the facade remained incomplete until 1725 when it was finally finished by order of Pope Benedict XIII.

The sacristy of the Church was the site of two Papal conclaves. The first, held in the March 1431, elected Pope Eugene IV, the second, in March 1447, Pope Nicholas V.

In the 16th century Giuliano da Sangallo made changes in the choir area and in 1600 Carlo Maderno enlarged the apse, added Baroque decorations and created the present facade with its pilastered tripartite division in Renaissance style.

Marks on this facade dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries indicate various flood levels of the Tiber 65 feet (20 m).

The late sixteenth century saw the studium at Santa Maria sopra Minerva undergo transformation. Thomas Aquinas, who had been canonized in 1323 by Pope John XXII, was proclaimed the fifth Latin Doctor of the Church by Pius V in 1567. To honor this great doctor, in 1577 the Spanish Dominican Msgr. Juan Solano, O.P., former bishop of Cusco, Peru, generously funded the reorganization of the studium at the convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva on the model of the College of St. Gregory at Valladolid in his native Spain. The result of Solano's initiative, which underwent structural change shortly before Solano's death in 1580, was the College of Saint Thomas (Latin: Collegium Divi Thomae) at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). The college occupied several existing convent structures and new construction was required. At that time the convent underwent considerable reconstruction to accommodate the college and the cloister was redesigned so that side chapels could be added to the church's northern flank. A detail from the Nolli Map of 1748 gives some idea of the disposition of buildings when the Minerva convent housed the College of St. Thomas.

On 14 September 1628, by papal decree, the convent of Minerva was designated as the seat of the Congregation of the Holy Office. It thus became the place where the tribunal of the Roman Inquisition set up by Paul III in 1542 held the Secret Congregation meetings during which the sentences were read out. It was in a room of the Minerva Convent on 22 June 1633 that the father of modern astronomy Galileo Galilei, after being tried for heresy, abjured his scientific theses in favour of the Copernican theory.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century the suppression of religious orders hampered the mission of the Order and the College of St. Thomas. During the French occupation of Rome from 1797 to 1814 the College declined and even briefly closed its doors from 1810 to 1815. The Order gained control of the convent once again in 1815 only to be expropriated by the Italian government in 1870.

Between 1848 and 1855 Girolamo Bianchedi directed an important program of restoration when most of the Baroque additions were removed and the blank walls were covered with neo-gothic frescos giving the interior the Neo-Gothic appearance that it has today.

In 1873 the Collegium Divi Thomæ de Urbe was forced to leave the Minerva for good eventually being relocated at the convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus in 1932 and being transformed into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.

The Dominicans eventually were allowed to return to the Minerva and part of the convent.

The basilica's stained glass windows are mostly from the 19th century.

In 1909 the great organ was constructed by the renowned firm of Carlo Vegezzi Bossi. The organ was restored in 1999.