Santa Maria della Vittoria

Getting to the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria was a bit frustrating. We were coming from the Trevi Fountain where we were bale to walk through it because it wasn’t on, but from the train stop the two were on the complete opposite side from each other. We tried to catch a bus that would at least take us to the train stop, which was the half way point between the two. We could have gotten on the first bus that came but it was completely full and a wheelchair was trying to get on the bus. To avoid being on a completely hot and full bus we decided to take the next bus that came right after and stopped at the Barberini metro stop. From here we walked up the hill and tried to find the church once we finally got to the top of the hill. The frustrating part for me was that after it took us ten minutes to walk up we noticed the first bus we had avoided took us right to where the church was. Of course there was nothing I could have done at the time, but it would have been nice to avoid walking up that hill after a long day.

When we got inside my initial reaction was “wow they really meant small church.” After all the large churches we had been to it was a complete shock to see a small church that still managed to have similar art and history as the bigger churches. There were not many people when we first walked in but little by little it began to fill up. At one point it felt as if I had to watch where I was going because there was not much room to walk around in without bumping into someone else. Although small the church was beautiful. When I walked up toward the altar I immediately recognized the statue that we had discussed in class with the ecstasy look on Santa Maria’s face. There were many people looking at the art so I did not have a chance to go and look at the name of it, but was very pleased with myself to have recognized it. The altar was very beautiful and decorative, not that I would expect any less from a Catholic church in Rome. The ceilings were also very decorative and beautifully filled with artwork.

The most important part of the visit for me was seeing a church that was actually functioning like a church and felt less like a museum. There were many people sitting on the benches and prayer and using the church for its intended purposes. There was even a priest siting in an area in the back that had a sign for confessions and blessings. Even as I walked around to admire the church I felt as if I was intruding in the religious space of someone else. I wondered if they were accustomed to people walking in simply to admire their church, while this may have been a regular religious space for some individuals. I was very pleased to see the space being used productively, not that admiring a church is not productive but the usefulness of this smaller church gave me a full picture of what churches mean in Rome and how they can mean different things for different people, for example a resident and a visitor.