La Mostra    Urban Space and Worship    The Coliseum as a Place of Worship

The Archconfraternity of Gonfalone and the Christianization of Colosseum

Inside the Coliseum, the Arciconfraternita del Gonfalone kept a chapel under the invocation of the blessed Virgin of Mercy, which was looked after by a monk and opened to the public on solemn feast days. Founded in 1246, the Arciconfraternita was the Rome’s oldest such body, and one of its biggest too. Between 1490 and 1539, during Holy Week the Arciconfraternita put on a large and highly-evocative holy representation in the Coliseum, at not insignificant expense (more than 227 escudos in 1539), which attracted up to a hundred thousand spectators. A fresco of the city of Jerusalem, including Mount Calvary, dominated the stage. Dressed in Roman costume, actors presented the passion of Christ in great solemnity, showing every stage of the process, from flagellation to death. The representation was staged “with the utmost distinction” during the Holy Year of 1525. In 1539, however, it was banned owing to the “great unrest caused practically every time” at the end of the show, owing to the excessive emotional involvement the spectacle aroused in those who attended.

Privilegia, facultates et indulgentiae ven. Archiconfraternitatis Confalonis, in: Statuti della venerabile Archiconfraternita del Confalone, Roma 1735

The Chapel of the Archconfraternity of Gonfalone within the Colosseum

Inside the Coliseum, the Arciconfraternita del Gonfalone kept a chapel under the invocation of the blessed Virgin of Mercy, which was looked after by a monk and opened to the public on solemn feast days. Founded in 1246, the Arciconfraternita was the Rome’s oldest such body, and one of its biggest too. Between 1490 and 1539, during Holy Week the Arciconfraternita put on a large and highly-evocative holy representation in the Coliseum, at not insignificant expense (more than 227 escudos in 1539), which attracted up to a hundred thousand spectators. A fresco of the city of Jerusalem, including Mount Calvary, dominated the stage. Dressed in Roman costume, actors presented the passion of Christ in great solemnity, showing every stage of the process, from flagellation to death. The representation was staged “with the utmost distinction” during the Holy Year of 1525. In 1539, however, it was banned owing to the “great unrest caused practically every time” at the end of the show, owing to the excessive emotional involvement the spectacle aroused in those who attended.

Francesco Rovira Bonet, Metodo pratico di venerare le sette pene principali di Maria vergine il quale può servire per ossequiare i di lei sette dolori nella piccola chiesa che è dentro il Colosseo..., in: Id., Breve e divota notizia della vita, martirio, virtù e miracoli di alcuni santi dell'anfiteatro Flavio volgarmente detto il Colosseo..., 2 ed., Roma 1759

The Chapel of the Archconfraternity of Gonfalone within the Colosseum in XVIII century statutes

Statuti della venerabile Archiconfraternita del Confalone, Roma 1735

Christianization of Colosseum in the project of Carlo Fontana for Innocent XI

Sixtus V was the first Pope to attempt to reconvert and christianize the Coliseum. To mark the Jubilee of 1675, Pope Clement X had two engravings erected in which he counselled pilgrims to enter the building not to admire the grandeur of the Roman monument but to “reawaken in the faithful a memory of the sanctity of the place and the strength of martyrs”, and to pray for them. Between 1675 and 1679, Carlo Fontana designed a church – a veritable martyrs’ sanctuary – for construction inside the arena. He presented the design to newly-elected Pope Innocent X, but it was never built. Fontana’s blueprint for the Coliseum was only printed posthumously in the Hague in 1725.

Carlo Fontana (draw.), Domenico Franceschino (engr.), Pianta dell'Anfiteatro come di presente si trova, con ledifitio [sic] templare che si propone da ergersi, in: Carlo Fontana, L'anfiteatro Flavio descritto e delineato..., Den Haag 1725

Colosseum, place of cult of the saints who were martyrized there

Francesco Rovira Bonet, Breve e divota notizia della vita, martirio, virtù e miracoli di alcuni santi dell'anfiteatro Flavio volgarmente detto il Colosseo..., 2 ed., Roma 1759

Colosseum, place of cult of the saints who were martyrized there

Francesco Rovira Bonet, Novenario de' santi dell'anfiteatro Flavio volgarmente detto il Colosseo, o vero nove orazioni in onore de' santi del Colosseo..., in: Id., Breve e divota notizia della vita, martirio, virtù e miracoli di alcuni santi dell'anfiteatro Flavio volgarmente detto il Colosseo..., 2 ed., Roma 1759

Leonardo da Porto Maurizio

Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, summoned to Rome by Benedict XIV to spiritually train Roman faithful for the next jubilee, on 25 January 1750 implores the pontiff to give the infant Congregation of Jesus and Mary Lovers the authorization to do within the Colosseum the fourteen Stations of the Cross, obtaining an immediate rescript by the Pope.

Fossi (phot.), S. Leonardo da Porto Maurizio. Quadro del Sordino (1804) esistente nella cappella della sacrestia all'Incontro (Firenze), in: Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, Prediche delle missioni con aggiunte di necrologie, lettere e documenti inediti..., Arezzo 1929

Plea of Leonardo da Porto Maurizio to pope Benedict XIV for the Via Crucis in the Colosseum

Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, Prediche delle missioni con aggiunte di necrologie, lettere e documenti inediti..., Arezzo 1929

The Archconfraternity of lovers of Jesus and Mary

The Archconfraternity of the lovers of Jesus and Mary, founded in 1750 by father Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, got authorization from the pontiff to celebrate within the Colosseum the fourteen Stations of the Cross.

Statuti della ven. Archiconfraternita degli amanti di Gesù e di Maria eretta in Roma nell'anno del giubileo MDCCL ed approvati di proprio carattere dalla s. m. di Benedetto XIV, colle annotazioni ai capitoli e coi chirografi in fine che ne formano le parti essenziali, Velletri 1846

View of Anfiteatro Flavio named Colosseum

In the birs's eye view of the Colosseum, engraved by Giovanni Battista Piranesi in 1776, you can see around the stalls the 14 chapels of the Stations of the Cross and in the middle the big Cross.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Veduta dell'anfiteatro Flavio detto il Colosseo, in: Id., Vedute di Roma disegnate ed incise da Giambattista Piranesi Architetto veneziano, vol. I, Paris 1836

View of Colosseum

Angelo Uggeri, Le Colisée, in: Id., Journées pittoresques des édifices de Rome ancienne, vol. IV (Vues des édifices de Rome antique dans l'interieur, dessinés et publiès de l'an. 1793 au 1810), Roma 1810

Interior of Colosseum, albumen photograph (about 1870)

This photograph, which can be dated to 1870 ca., still shows San Leonardo’s cross and the small Via Crucis chapels, before their demolition in 1874, a few years after the taking of Rome. The cross was initially moved elsewhere, only to be returned in 1925 when the practice of the Via Crucis was resumed at the Coliseum.

Interno del Colosseo, albumen photograph (about 1870)