Santa Maria in Vallicella

The Chiesa Nuova, or Santa Maria in Vallicella, was consecrated in 1599 and is to be found in the Parione District in Rome.

Since the XIII century it has been dedicated to the Nativity of the Madonna and in the Sacristy there is a fresco from the fourth century of the Madonna Vallecelliana.

The church is built on the site of an old medieval church, and this is why it is "new". It was constructed with a single nave and four Chapels on each side which were decorated with stucco's and marble following designs by Domenico Fontana and Dosio. Pietro da Cortona frescoed the nave, the dome, and the apse.

In the Chapel on the left hand side of the alter is the tomb of the Roman apostle San Filippo Neri, but it is not the only Chapel. There are also Chapels in the naves: Purification Chapel, Magi Chapel, Annunciation Chapel, Visitation Chapel, Crucifix Chapel, Mercy Chapel, and the Chapels in the transept: the Chapel of the Presentation of the Virgin, and others.

The facade, realised by Borromini and richly decorated, has two rows of pilasters. the central door is surmounted by a tympanum. On the side there is the Filippino Oratory, the term oratory refers to the function that the area had, in fact Saint Filippo had musical compositions played here.

After 1870 the whole complex made up of the church, the oratory, and all the rest, was substituted and put to use as the office of the Corte d'Assise.