Medieval Mosaics

Rome, S Maria in Monticelli

Era	12AD
Location	Via di S. Maria in Monticelli, 00186 Roma RM, Italy

S Maria in Monticelli is not a frequently-visited church. It’s near the Tibur off the Via Giulia, but not near anything in particular. It’s also only open (or it was only open) for Mass. The church is an eighteenth-century rebuilding, perhaps of a twelfth-century church - the bell tower (campanile) is twelfth-century. There is a fragment of mosaic stuck all by itself in the apse, a mosaic head of a bearded Christ, set inside a painted vine scroll evoking S Clemente and the Lateran baptistery. The mosaic may be twelfth century. There are supposedly other fragments of decoration, but I have failed to find these.

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