San Lorenzo in Damaso

San Lorenzo in Damaso ("Saint Lawrence in the House of Damasus") is a basilica church in Rome, one of several dedicated to the Roman deacon and martyr Saint Lawrence. Known since antiquity (synod of Pope Symmachus, 499) as "Titulus Damasi", according to tradition San Lorenzo in Damaso was built by Pope Damasus I in his own house, in the 380s.

Donato Bramante rebuilt the church in the 15th century, by order of Cardinal Raffaele Riario, within the restoration works of the close by Palazzo della Cancelleria. The last restoration was necessary after a fire that damaged the basilica in 1944.

The first chapel to the right houses a "Virgin with Saints Filippo Neri and Nicolò" by Sebastiano Conca, while the ceiling is frescoed with "Eternity appears to San Nicola" by Corrado Giaquinto. The first chapel to the left has a "Last Supper" by Vincenzo Berrettini.

In the first nave to the left, are statues of Saints Francesco Saverio and Carlo Borromeo by Stefano Maderno. On the right nave, there is a monument to "Gabriella di Savoia Massimo" by Pietro Tenerani. The presbitery, modified by Bernini, is the altarpiece of "Saints and Coronation of Mary" by Federico Zuccari. In the nave to the left of the presbitery, is the chapel of the "SS.Concezione" completed and frescoed (1635-38) by Pietro da Cortona. Other works include the monument of Cardinal Trevisan (1505), the "Madonna delle Gioie", attributed to Nicolò Circignani, and the monument of Annibal Caro (1566), by Giovanni Antonio Dosio.

The Cardinal Priest of the "Titulus S. Laurentii in Damaso" is Antonio Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid.

References

* [http://roma.katolsk.no/lorenzodamaso.htm "San Lorenzo in Damaso"] , by Chris Nyborg.
*Pietro da Cortona, " [http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/egallery/object.asp?maker=DACORTONAP&object=904448&row=1&detail=about A Design for a] Quarantore at San Lorenzo in Damaso", c.1632