Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Frescoes by Filippo Lippi in the Carafa Chapel of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. (Photo by Stijn Nieuwendijk)

Sculptures by Michelangelo and Bernini, the bodies of Fra' Angelico and St. Catherine, and the tombs of two Medici popes—so why isn't this church right behind the Pantheon more famous?

The elephant statue by Bernini outside Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

The elephant statue by Bernini outside the church. (Photo by Juan Salmoral)

Rome's only Gothic church was built in 1280 over the site of a Temple to Minerva (hence the name, "St. Mary over Minerva").

The piazza out front sports a whimsical statute by Bernini of a baby elephant (1667) carrying a miniature Egyptian obelisk on its back. (This was a theme Bernini had been dying to try for several decades, but never got the chance until Pope Alexander VII commissioned him to create a base for this obleisk, discovered near the site.)

The church interior was heavily restored in the 19th century—though keeping (mostly) to the original, spare Gothic style—and contains some masterpieces by Tuscan Renaissance artists and the bodies of important Tuscan Renaissance personalities.

The gothic nave and deep blue ceiling of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. (Photo by Chris Wee)

The last chapel on the right retains a sumptuous cycle of frescoes by Filippino Lippi (a detail is pictured at the top of the page).

on the lower half of the chapel's right wall is a scene of St. Thomas Condemning the Heretics. The two boys in the group on the right are portraits of Giovanni de' Medici and Giulio de' Medici.

These two would grow up to become Popes Leo X and Clement VII, respectively, and are buried in the apse in tombs by Antonio Sangallo the Younger.

Under the altar lies the body of the pious medieval activist and Dominican nun St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), a skilled theologian and diplomat whose letters and visits were instrumental in returning the papacy from Avignon to Rome.

Michelangelo's Cristo Redentore in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Michelangelo's Risen Christ (1519–20).

To the left of the altar steps is Michelangelo's muscular Risen Christ (1514–21), leaning nonchalantly on a diminutive Cross (such a strong, virile, and quite naked Christ wasn't to everyone's taste, and the church later added a sweep of bronze drapery to cover the Lord's loins).

In a corridor to the left of the choir, behind a small fence, is the tomb slab of the early Renaissance master and devout monk Fra' Angelico, who died in the attached convent in 1455.

Pope Nicholas V, who had commissioned a Vatican chapel from the painter 10 years earlier and was touched by the little monk's piety, modesty, and skill, wrote the epitaph himself.