Description
Santa Maria in Cosmedin (Latin Sanctae Mariae in Cosmedin) is located in Piazza Bocca della Verita in Rome
In the site where now stands the church, next to the Tiber, the Circus Maximus and the Forum Boarium, rose in Statio annonae the imperial era, the service managing the supply and distribution of food to the Roman people.
But even before that, it was the seat of Hercules High Altar, Sanctuary "international" in MP ensure that businesses and merchants who lived and traded in that area, and again in the first century BC Vitruvius mentions a temple rectangular at the entrance of the Circus Maximus, dedicated to Hercules Invictus, or Pompeiano, following the restoration made by this character.
Because of this history of the place, probably, the grain supply and neighboring buildings became home since the sixth century of Diakonia, ecclesial structure designed to provide assistance to the Christian people. The first small church was built by Pope Gregory the Great, whose family had large estates in the area, around the beginning of the seventh century.
Pope Adrian I had it rebuilt at the end of the eighth century, within the structure of 'Annona ancient seat of the church incorporated the structure and columns, dividing it into three naves and embellishing it with splendid decorations. The church and its annexes were entrusted to a colony of Greek monks who had fled to Rome to escape the persecution of the iconoclasts, and settled on this side of the Tiber, where he had already established the Greek community and was known for this as Ripa Greek. From these, the church took the name of Santa Maria in Schola Greek, and became known as Santa Maria in Cosmedin, from the Greek word kosmidion (ornament).
Unlike most of the churches of the Roman period, this was not some sort on the grave of a martyr. However he is also its crypt, dug in the same podium of Ara Maxima.
During the pontificate of Pope Nicholas I (858-867) were added a sacristy of the church, the chapel and a residence diaconate; Pope Gelasius II in 1118 did repair the damage suffered by the property almost a hundred years before (1082) following the invasion of the Normans led by Robert Guiscard, and Pope Callistus II in 1200 built the porch.
The church was restored again in 1718 to designs by Giuseppe Sardi who changed the style from Romanesque to Rococo.
