Friday: San Lorenzo in Lucina
This ancient church stands in a small piazza just off the busy Via del Corso. The titulus of St. Lawrence in Lucina took its name, as with many other of the early tituli, from the name of the donor of the site or structure itself, who in this case was the Roman landlady Lucina. This area first became developed during the early Imperial period, with the famous Ara Pacis standing in a location just behind the apse of the church. On this spot itself stood a large apartment building, known as an insula, traditionally that of Lucina though the original place of worship may have been located in another location nearby. In the mid 430s, Pope Sixtus III built the first basilica here, like others of the time with a nave flanked by an aisle on each side and terminating in an apse. Being in the midst of an area often hit by floods of the Tiber, the church was in need of periodical restoration, with at least two recorded in the first millennium. During this era this church fulfilled an important liturgical role as the starting point of the procession for the Greater Litany, a penitential procession and liturgical service, on 25 April. This procession, beginning here, would head up the Via Flaminia, crossing the Tiber at the Milvian Bridge before returning down the other side of the river for the stational Mass at St. Peter’s.
The Norman attack of 1084 affected this area, with the original basilica receiving its share of damage as well. Although the extent of this is unknown, a refurbishing did follow, ending with the dedication by Pope Anacletus II on 25 May, 1130. A reconsecration in 1196 can be taken to signal the definitive end of this period of restoration. In this period the basilica, besides having its floor level raised, received a campanile in the style of the time, as well as interior furnishings in the cosmatesque style. A renovation completed in 1462 brought about some minor changes, although the seventeenth century would see the entire interior transformed. These actually began in the last years of the sixteenth century, when the floor was raised once again and a new high altar was constructed in the style of the time. In 1616, the left aisle was converted into chapels opening on to the nave, a process continued in the right aisle in the middle of the century. Finally, a new high altar was constructed and consecrated in 1676, largely giving the interior the appearance of today. Bl. Pope Pius IX oversaw a restoration of the interior in 1857 and 1858 that added two additional chapels and removed some of the Baroque decorations, so that it is a largely nineteenth century interior, with some works from the preceding centuries, that we encounter today. Additional work in the early twentieth century brought the façade back to an approximation of its medieval appearance.
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Address: via San Lorenzo in Lucina, 16A
Directions: Take bus 62 from Acciaioli (in front of S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini) to the stop by Piazza del Colonna. Walk up the Corso about four streets and take a left on Piazza S. Lorenzo in Lucina. The church is to the left.