The church of the Santissimo Salvatore is one of the main places of worship in Terracina, in the lower part of the historic centre, in the Borgo Pio. In documents it is also called the Chiesa Nuova or Chiesa Grande. It was wanted by Pope Pius VI, founder of the new Terracina, who entrusted the first design to Giuseppe Valadier: a church with a convent for the Dominicans, dedicated to Saint Pius V, facing an exedra on the Via Appia. But the pope died a prisoner in France in 1799 without seeing its foundations, and in 1815 the Dominicans gave up the convent.
What to see
In 1830 the project passed to the papal architect Antonio Sarti of Budrio, a professor at the Accademia di San Luca; work began in 1831 and was carried out by Luigi Mollari. Sarti emphasised the façade with a great pronaos, setting back the two side buildings, and his design won the gold medal at the London International Exhibition of 1864. The exedra in front, now piazza Garibaldi, completes the setting wanted by Pius VI; on the façade you can read the dedication DEO SALVATORI.
The church is about 80 metres long from the main door to the apse and 30 wide, covering over 2000 square metres with the chapels. The work spanned almost the whole pontificate of Gregory XVI, celebrated by a plaque above the main door; the main structures were finished in 1845, as the inscription on the pediment says. A plaque on the left pier of the transept recalls the end of Pius VI.
Visiting
The church was blessed and inaugurated at Christmas 1843, but only became a parish in 1854. Mass and opening times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
On 1 May 1843 Gregory XVI said Mass here when the church had neither altars nor floor, on a large wooden altar built in a single night by all the carpenters of Terracina.
