| Santa Maria in Traspontina | |
|---|---|
 Façade seen from Via della Conciliazione. | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view. | |
| 41°54′10″N 12°27′44″E / 41.90278°N 12.46222°E | |
| Location | Borgo Sant'Angelo 15, Rome |
| Country | Italy |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Tradition | Latin Rite |
| Website | parrocchiatraspontina |
| History | |
| Status | Titular church, national church |
| Dedication | Mary, mother of Jesus |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Baroque |
| Groundbreaking | 1566 |
The Church of Santa Maria del Carmelo in Traspontina (Saint Mary of Carmel Across the Bridge) is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, run by the Carmelites. The bridge referred to is the Ponte Sant'Angelo. The church is on the Via della Conciliazione, the primary road of the Roman Rione of Borgo.
Pope Sixtus V designated the church as a cardinalatial titulus on 13 April 1587.[1] The current cardinal of Santa Maria in Traspontina is the former Archbishop of Quebec, Marc Ouellet, and is the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops of the Roman Curia. He was Cardinal Priest from 2003 to 2018, and continued there when co-opted to suburbicarian rank.
It is the national church for Danish Catholics.
The first church named Santa Maria in Traspontina, which lay much nearer to the Tiber than today's church, was demolished during the pontificate of Pius IV (1559–1565) to clear the line of fire for the cannons of the Castel Sant' Angelo, who wished to practice shooting on the Janiculum, which would have been blocked behind the church.[2]
Designs by Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi (with contributions by Ottaviano Nonni[3] and Francesco Peparelli) for a replacement church were in place by 1566, though the papal artillery officers insisted that its dome be as low as possible to avoid a recurrence of the previous problem — for this reason this is the only church in Rome whose dome does not lie on a drum.[2] The new church was erected along the North side of Borgo Nuovo, which was at that time - and until its destruction in 1937 - the main road of Borgo.
The inscriptions found in Santa Maria in Traspontina, a valuable source illustrating the history of the church, have been collected and published by Vincenzo Forcella.[4]
On 21 October 2019 Alexander Tschugguel and an accomplice stole five statues, reportedly of Inca fertility goddess Pachamama, from the church and threw them into the Tiber. The statues were on display in one of the church's side chapels as part of an educational installment about Amazonian culture during the Amazon Synod.[5][6]
The façade is built in travertine blocks. The campanile (1637) was designed by Peparelli.[7]
The main altar (1674) was designed by Carlo Fontana, and has a copy of a medieval icon lost during the period of the Roman Republic (1798-1799).[2] The statues (1695) around the altar are by Alessandro Rondoni, Giacomo Antonio Lavaggi, Vincenzo Felici, and Michel Maille.
The ceiling of the left crossing (1697) was frescoed by Biagio Puccini; the crossing to the right, has an Apparition of the Trinity and 3 saints (1639) by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini. The choir is located behind the main altar, separate from the name. It has paintings (1760) by Angelo Papi.[7]
