In the Sign of Bernini: Church of Santa Bibiana

A place that few tourists and Romans know about, but which houses works by immortal artists like Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, and Agostino Ciampelli

You can’t say you’ve seen Bernini in Rome if you haven’t been to the Church of Santa Bibiana (https://maps.app.goo.gl/qkknFJ1MMHPBDRxP8).

Small, intimate, hidden from the traffic around Termini station, it is a church mainly frequented by the small community of believers in the Esquilino district. It’s a secluded, mystical place where a young Bernini showcased his best talents. The Church has ancient origins – Bibiana was a Roman martyr of the 4th century – dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries AD. But it’s thanks to the early genius of Bernini that we have its current architectural appearance (1624-25).

On the main altar, amidst the frescoes by Agostino Ciampelli, dominates the scene with the striking statue that the great artist dedicated to the saint.

Also noteworthy are the decorations in the central nave, partly the work of the great painter Pietro da Cortona (his paintings are at the Quirinale, the National Gallery in London, the Capitoline Museums, the Hermitage, the Borghese Gallery, the Louvre, Palazzo Barberini, the Uffizi Gallery, the Vatican Pinacoteca, the Prado, the Metropolitan Museum, and so on).

The church contains the column to which the saint was tied to be flogged. It is said that 11,266 martyrs were buried in the place where the place of worship was erected.