Travel Notes | The Back of the Pantheon. The Most Beautiful Starry Sky in Rome is Hidden Here

Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Santa Maria sopra Minerva The only Gothic church in Rome Located in Piazza della Minerva behind the Pantheon With the most beautiful blue starry sky in Rome - In the late Roman Republic There were three temples here The delubrum mimervium dedicated to the goddess Minerva by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, one of the three giants, the temple of Isis, and the temple of Serapis The popes rebuilt this place from the 8th to the 13th century The Dominicans started in 1280 Using the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence as a model Built this church in Rome The internal rib structure was completed in 1453 And finally completed in the 18th century And "escaped" the Baroque transformation of Rome Today The whitewashed facade Still shows the characteristics of the Renaissance - Renaissance master Fra Angelico is buried here St. John Paul II canonized him in 1982 The words of the Pope to Angelico are very touching: "With all his life sang the glory of God, that he carried as a treasure deep in his heart and expressed in his works of art […] for him art became prayer" - Art is the most sublime prayer