The existing remains consist of an arch, called "L'Arco dell' Annunziata," and a brick tower, which is now in the possession of a Signor Forti, who exhibits here, during Epiphany, a remarkably pretty Presepio, in which the Holy Family and the Shepherds are seen backed by the real landscape. For those who witness this sight it will be interesting to turn to the origin of a Presepio.
"St. Francis asked [of Pope Honorius III. 1223], with his usual simplicity, to be allowed to celebrate Christmas with certain unusual ceremonies which had suggested themselves to him—ceremonies which he must have thought likely to seize upon the popular imagination and impress the unlearned folk. He would not do it on his own authority, we are told, lest he should be accused of levity. When he made this petition, he was bound for the village of Grecia, a little place not far from Assisi, where he was to remain during that sacred season. In this village, when the eve of the nativity approached, Francis instructed a certain grave and worthy man, called Giovanni, to prepare an ox and an ass, along with a manger and all the common fittings of a stable, for his use, in the church. When the solemn night arrived, Francis and his brethren arranged all these things into a visible representation of the occurrences of the night at Bethlehem. The manger was filled with hay, the animals were led into their places; the scene was prepared as we see it now through all the churches of Southern Italy—a reproduction, so far as the people know how, in startling realistic detail of the surroundings of the first Christmas.... We are told that Francis stood by this, his simple theatrical (for such, indeed, it was—no shame to him) representation, all the night long, sighing for joy, and filled with an unspeakable sweetness."—Mrs. Oliphant, St. Francis.
On the left, is the fine Church of S. Chrisogono, founded by Pope Sylvester, but rebuilt in 731, and again by Cardinal Scipio Borghese (who modernized so many of the old churches), in 1623. The tower is mediæval (rebuilt?), but spoilt by whitewash; the portico has four ancient granite columns. The interior is a basilica, the nave being separated from the aisles by twenty-two granite columns, and the tribune from the nave by two magnificent columns of porphyry. The baldacchino, of graceful proportions, rests on pillars of yellow alabaster. Over the tabernacle is a picture of the Virgin and Child by the Cav. d'Arpino. The mosaic in the tribune, probably only the fragment of a larger design, represents the Madonna and Child enthroned, between St. James the Great and St. Chrisogonus. The stalls are good specimens of modern wood-carving. Near the end of the right aisle is the modern tomb of Anna Maria Taigi, lately beatified and likely to be canonized, though readers of her life will find it difficult to imagine why,—the great point of her character being that she was a good wife to her husband, though he was "ruvido di maniere, e grossolano." Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, was titular cardinal of this church.
S. Chrisogono, represented in the mosaic as a young knight, stood by Sta. Anastasia during her martyrdom, exhorting her to patient endurance. He was afterwards himself beheaded under Diocletian, and his body thrown into the sea.
In 1866 an Excubitorium of the VIIth cohort of Vigiles (a station of Roman firemen) was discovered near this church. Several chambers were tolerably perfect.
On the left, we pass the Hospital of S. Gallicano, founded by Benedict XIII. (Orsini), in 1725, as is told by the inscription over the entrance, for the "neglectis rejectisque ab omnibus." The interior contains two long halls opening into one another, the first containing 120 beds for men, the second 88 for women. Patients affected with maladies of the skin are received here to the number of 100. The principal treatment is by means of baths, which gives the negative, within these walls, to the Italian saying that "an ancient Roman took as many baths in a week as a modern Roman in all his life." The establishment is at present under the management of the Benfratelli ("Fate bene fratelli"). S. Gallicano, to whom the hospital is dedicated, was a Benfratello of the time of Constantine, who devoted his time and his fortune to the poor.
At the upper end of the Via Lungaretta is a piazza with a very handsome fountain, on one side of which is the Church of Sta. Maria in Trastevere, supposed to be the first church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin. It was founded by St. Calixtus in A.D. 224, on the site of the Taberna-Meritoria, an asylum for old soldiers; where, according to Don Cassius, a fountain of pure oil sprang up at the time of our Saviour's birth, and flowed away in one day to the Tiber, a story which gave the name of "Fons Olei" to the church in early times. It is said that wine-sellers and tavern-keepers (popinarii) disputed with the early Christian inhabitants for this site, upon which the latter had raised some kind of humble oratory, and that they carried their complaint before Alexander Severus, when the emperor awarded the site to the Christians, saying, "I prefer that it should belong to those who honour God, whatever be their form of worship."
"Ce souvenir augmente encore l'intérêt qui s'attache à l'église de Santa Maria in Trastevere. Les colonnes antiques de granit égyptien de cette basilique et les belles mosaïques qui la décorent me touchent moins que la tradition d'après laquelle elle fut élevée là où de pauvres chrétiens se rassemblaient dans un cabaret purifié par leur piété, pour y célébrer le culte qui devait un jour étaler ses magnificences sous le dôme resplendissant de Saint-Pierre."—Ampère, Emp. ii. 318.
The church was rebuilt in 340 by Julius I., and after a series of alterations was again almost entirely reconstructed in 1139 by Innocent II., as a thanksgiving offering for the submission of the anti-pope. Eugenius III. (1145—50) finished what was left uncompleted, but the new basilica was not consecrated till the time of Innocent III. (1198—1216). The tower, apse, tribune, and mosaics belong to the early restoration; the rest is due to alterations made by Bernardino Rossellini for Nicholas V.
The west façade is covered with mosaics; the upper part—representing the Saviour throned between angels—and the lower—of palms, the twelve sheep, and the mystic cities—are additions by Pius IX. in 1869. The central frieze was begun in the twelfth century under Eugenius III., and completed in the fourteenth by Pietro Cavallini. It represents the Virgin and Child enthroned in the midst, and ten female figures, generally described as the Ten Virgins,—but Hemans remarks: