What to see · Guidonia Montecelio

More places of interest

• Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista

  The church of San Giovanni Evangelista is the parish church of Montecelio, a hamlet of the scattered comune of Guidonia Montecelio, in the diocese of Tivoli.

  What to see

  The façade, facing north-east and crowned by a triangular pediment, is divided by a string course into two registers, both marked by pilasters; in the centre opens the main portal with its pediment, with a large window above, while on the two side wings, with the secondary entrances and two windows, stand the bell towers, whose circular-plan bell chambers are crowned by domes. The interior has a single nave, covered by a lunetted barrel vault in three bays; along the sides, marked by Corinthian pilasters that carry the cornice, three chapels on each side open through round arches, crowned by sail vaults. At the end of the hall lies the presbytery, with the high altar as a table, covered by a lunetted vault and closed by a semicircular apse.

  The original church of Montecelio, dedicated to San Giovanni in Forcella, arose presumably between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the start of the eighteenth century, being in very poor condition, it was demolished and in 1705 the first stone of the new Baroque parish church was laid: the building, designed by the Roman Filippo Leti, was completed in 1710 and consecrated on 16 November of that year by the bishop of Tivoli, Antonio Fonseca. In the nineteenth century the church was embellished with wall paintings; in 1991, in keeping with post-conciliar norms, the new altar facing the congregation was built.

  Visiting

  The church is in Montecelio, in the comune of Guidonia Montecelio. The sources consulted give no opening hours or times of services: these should be checked with the parish.

  Our editors' tip

  Of the six side chapels only the second on the right is not decorated by the nineteenth-century frescoes of Michelangelo Cianti, which cover the others and the vault of the presbytery and continue in the apse, on the basin and on the walls marked by marble pilasters.

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