Linda Diane Feldt
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Tuesday Nov 29 2005
Photographs were not allowed of the Capuchin Monks Crypt, so here are some web links with images:
I began with the museum of bones - the Capuchin Monks - were you can count 100 skulls in just one of the crypts arranged as "art". A love anatomy, I love the human body, but this was a singularly bizarre experience that is unlike any other in my life. the parts of over 4,000 monks are arranged in stylized patterns mimicking the art of the time - sacrums create light fixtures, skulls stacked in arches, mummified monks leaning back in arches made of forearms and other bones. I've shown the postcards and book to many people since I returned. Knowing my resonance with bodies, people have most often what it felt like. Well the answer is that the people were profoundly dead. There was no spirit, no feeling, it was death and more death. But creative, interesting, it drew me in and I just let me jaw drop (appropriate as I watched the stacked jawbones...) and took it in as something beyond my comprehension. The work of a mad man? An artist? Someone who loves bones as much as I do? I don't know. But I really loved the place and didn't want to leave. I wanted to see people's reactions (the few people I saw mostly closed down and hurried out). I chatted with the woman at the door, it was just such a strange thing to come and witness and then go back into the mediterranean warmth and sun shine of a busy Roman day.
The Trevie Fountain. So large, every angle is different. So many images and they all change as the light moves and the water hits it. It was interesting to read later that these are the terminal points for the aqueducts.
an alleyway near the Pantheon.
the nearby Pizza de Pietra - columns remaining from the Temple of Hadrian dedicated AD 145 also near the Pantheon.
The entrance to the Pantheon
Interior of the Pantheon, showing the roped off area under the ocular. The original Pantheon was built in 27-25 BC, dedicated to Mars, Venus and Caesar. Rebuilt in AD 80, and designed by Hadrian. The dome is 142 feet high and is perfectly semi-circular. The oculus (opening in the dome) is 30 feet in diameter. The floors are marble, and the round walls are an array of altars, paintings, burial sites, and Christian symbolism. i visited each day I was in Rome, and every day was different and compelling.
This is a side view of The Pantheon, looking towards Piazza Minerva. At Piazza Minerva there is the Elephant with the obelisk on its back. This link is to a great photo of the elephant with the Pantheon in the background.
I found that the church on Piaza Minerva had perhaps the most sacred and extraordinary feel of any of the churches I visited.
Here is a link to photos others have taken of this church
http://sights.seindal.dk/sight/214_Santa_Maria_sopra_Minerva.html
and the web site (in Italian) for the church:
http://www.basilicaminerva.it/storia/storia.htm