Rome - Sant'Andrea della Valle

The beauty of the facade and dome of the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle is best seen from the Corso del Rinascimento; a distinctive feature is the angel with outspread wings on the left-hand side, taking the place of a volute (there is no corresponding feature on the right-hand side). Sant'Andrea, served by the Theatines (a preaching order), is very popular with the people of Rome - as is evidenced by the fact that Puccini sets the first act of "Tosca" in the Cappella Allavanti, the first chapel in the south aisle of the church. The architects responsible for Sant'Andrea (Francesco Grimaldi, Giacomo della Porta, Carlo Maderna and Carlo Rainaldi) followed the model of the Gesù church, some 500 yards away; many features are clearly reminiscent of that church - the two-story travertine facade with its plastic structure, the nave (high and wide, but yet creating an effect of harmony and unity) with its side chapels, transept, choir and apse, and the mighty dome (the second largest in Rome, after the dome of St Peter's) - and indeed the ground plan of Sant'Andrea is almost indistinguishable from that of the Gesù. The side chapels contain some fine pictures and statues, but the most notable features of the interior are the tombs of two Popes belonging to the Piccolomini family of Siena which were brought here from St Peter's in 1614 and now stand in the nave near the north transept: the humanist Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, d. 1464) on the left and Pope Pius III (Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, d. 1503) on the right. Both tombs were the work of Paolo Taccone and Andrea Bregno. The magnificent frescoes in the dome and the semi-dome of the apse were painted by Domenichino (1624-28).