Interior
Compared to the magnificent site and exterior, the interior is a serious disappointment. Apart from a marble dado, all the interior surfaces are painted in a uniform light brownish yellow and have developed unsightly surface cracks. The dome is coffered with a cross motif, has a stained glass window in the oculus showing a cross. There are eight round windows in the dome's drum, and no other windows. The interior is dominated by the mosaic of Christ in glory over the main altar. The left-hand side chapel is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and contains a mosaic of the Madonna and Child venerated by angels, while the right-hand one is dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and contains a mosaic of him and other Franciscan saints. There are reliefs depicting the Evangelists at the cardinal points. Perhaps the most interesting thing in the church is the enormous corona, a sixteen-sided light fitting suspended from the dome pendentive and matching the width of the dome.
Read more about this topic: Ss. Pietro E Paolo A Via Ostiense
Famous quotes containing the word interior:
“Alas! when Virtue sits high aloft on a frigate’s poop, when Virtue is crowned in the cabin of a Commodore, when Virtue rules by compulsion, and domineers over Vice as a slave, then Virtue, though her mandates be outwardly observed, bears little interior sway.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The exterior must be joined to the interior to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, and so on, in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to the creature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Those who sit in a glass house do wrong to throw stones about them; besides, the American glass house is rather thin, it will break easily, and the interior is anything but a gainly sight.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)