The present-day church of S. Maria del Pianto occupies the site of the demolished S. Salvatore de Cacabari, established in a porticus from imperial times. The area where the church is located was formerly occupied by the Circus Flaminius and in the medieval period was called Regio Arenulae et Caccabariae, from the pot makers (= cacabii) operating within it. This explains the name S. Salvatoris de Cacabariis under which the church first appears in 1186. The modern dedication to S. Maria del Pianto replaces the previous one when the image of a Madonna and Child that miraculously shed tears in 1546 is transferred to the church. The new church is inaugurated in 1612. The medieval building is said to have had a bell tower. In the church, mounted on the wall to the left of today's entrance, is a late 13th-century mosaic slab of uncertain origin and function whose marked luxury speaks to great ambitions. How can the presence of an element of such pretensions in a church as modest as S. Salvatore de Cacabariis be explained? One can only formulate a couple of hypotheses. One cannot exclude a possible patronage of the Cenci family, known in the area from around the middle of the 13th century, who could have financed an altar for a possible burial chapel; it is equally possible that the slab came from one of the countless churches or chapels in the vicinity, many of which have been demolished over the centuries (among these is S. Tommaso de Cenci).

Download

Download

Download