Located on the square of the same name along with the churches of Santa Susanna and Santa Maria della Vittoria, San Bernardo alle Terme was built on the perimeter of one of the four circular towers that stood on either side the remains of the Baths of Diocletian.
In 1598, Countess Caterina Sforza Cesarini had the idea of turning it into a church. With its characteristic cylindrical shape, San Bernardo looks like a miniature Pantheon. Devoid of windows, just like the Pantheon, it receives light only from the large circular hole (impluvium) placed in the center of the octagonal coffered dome, which, thanks to the light flooding them, creates suggestive chiaroscuro effects.
The church exterior is adorned by an architectural composition with pilasters and stucco cornices, framing the portal, niches, and panels. Above the cornice, an octagonal superelevation, ornamented with large oval cornices, serves as an attic.
San Bernardo measures 22 meters in diameter; an order of pilasters between which alternate eight large raised niches containing statues of saints in stucco, made by Camillo Mariani around 1600, divide its interior. The sculptures, which measure more than three meters each, look left and right alternately and depict St. Augustine, St. Monica, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Francis, St. Bernard, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Jerome.
It is a true triumph of whiteness interrupted only by the large 18th-century altarpieces above the two opposing altars framed by polychrome marble. The altarpieces by Giovanni Odazzi depict San Bernardo in ecstasy embraced by Jesus Crucified and the Mystical Marriage of Saint Robert with the Virgin.
Initially, the church was assigned to the French Cistercian order of the Foglianti. After the French Revolution, the order disbanded. San Bernardo was then entrusted to the congregation of Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom it is dedicated.
In the Chapel of St. Francis, added later to the original structure, you can admire the tomb monument of the German painter Frederick Overbeck, founder of the Nazarenes movement whose artists, working mainly in Rome, were inspired by the purity of the 15th-century Italian painting style.
In the center of the apse is the organ made by Nicola Morettini in 1885.
Museo Nazionale Romano – Diocletian's Baths
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Church of Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano
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The Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria
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Information
For the timetable of the masses and visiting conditions, please consult the contacts.
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Location
To find out about all accessibility services, visit the Rome accessible section.
