Parrocchia di San Camillo de Lellis

The church was built at the behest of Pope Pius X to the design of architect Tullio Passarelli. Construction began in 1906, and the foundation stone was laid by Cardinal Antonio Agliardi. Consecrated as a church and erected as a parish church in 1910, it was entrusted to the regular clerics Ministers of the Infirm, the order founded by Camillo de Lellis. In 1965, Pope Paul VI elevated the church to the dignity of minor basilica and at the same time created the cardinal's title of St Camillus de Lellis at the Orti Sallustiani.The basilica is in neo-Romanesque style with Gothic influences, with the exterior wall face in red brick (with decorative stone elements) and the interior entirely in travertine blocks. The floor plan is in the shape of a Latin cross, with a transept not protruding from the aisles.The façade has two orders horizontally separated by a loggia consisting of round arches resting on small columns, and is characterised by projecting buttresses. At the end of the wide access staircase are three entrance portals, each adorned with a lunette with bas-relief: the central one depicts Christ presents St. Camillus to the sick, those at the sides Christ among the children and The Forgiveness of the Adulteress; at the top of the main façade is a large circular rose window. Above the side portal on the left side, along Via Sallustiana, there is a bas-relief with Jesus the Good Shepherd, dated 1907. To the side of the apse rises the bell tower with a quadrangular plan, ending in a high pyramidal spire, whose cell opens outwards with a triple lancet window on each side; at the top, it reaches a height of 30 metres.Inside, the hall consists of three naves divided by round arches resting on pillars with sculpted capitals, and covered with a cross vault. Beyond the transept, the nave ends in a semicircular apse, in which there are five stained glass windows depicting Christ and the four evangelists; above the high altar, in a niche, there is a statue of St. Camillus, a work by Alberto Galli from 1911. By the same sculptor is the bas-relief in the lunette of the door leading to the sacristy, depicting Pius X observing the model of the church. On either side of the central apse are two smaller chapels used as side chapels.On the wooden choir loft on the counter façade is the pipe organ, built in 1910-11 by Carlo Vegezzi-Bossi (opus 1314) to a design by Filippo Capocci and donated by Margherita di Savoia. The instrument has electronic transmission (installed in 1999 in place of the original pneumatic one) and features 29 registers on two manuals and a pedal. The display is composed of principal pipes arranged in two wings sloping towards the centre without interruption, within three fields delimited by high pilasters; the case is limited to the base, in style with the church, which features a theory of Angel musicians within arches supported by small columns.