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The Church of St Vincent Martyr in Bassano Romano: the Hidden Michelangelo of Tuscia
The Church of San Vincenzo Martire stands on a hill in Bassano Romano, in the Viterbo area of Tuscia, dominating the surrounding countryside. It was built by the Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani in the 17th century as a family mausoleum. But the reason it is worth visiting lies inside, in a side chapel: the Christ Bearing the Cross is attributed to Michelangelo, the first version of the celebrated statue in Santa Maria sopra Minerva (St Mary above Minerva) in Rome.
The Story of a Lost and Found Statue
Michelangelo began sculpting the Christ between 1514 and 1516, but abandoned it when a black vein appeared on the left cheek. The statue remained in Rome, unfinished and forgotten, until 1607, when Giustiniani — banker, patron, the same man who collected Caravaggio’s works — purchased it and had it completed. In 1644 his nephew Andrea moved it here, to the family church. For centuries it passed as the work of an anonymous 17th-century sculptor. Only in 2001 did art historians Silvia Danesi Squarzina and Irene Baldriga cross-reference documents and marble analysis, recognising the original Michelangelo. In 2017 the statue was exhibited at the National Gallery in London.
What to See Inside
The interior is austere — no frescoes, only stucco work — since the church was built as a mausoleum, not a parish church. It comprises a Latin-cross plan, barrel vault, and dome at the crossing; two paintings on the sides of the transept: a Nativity and a Coronation of St Vincent. Since 1940 the church forms part of the Silvestrine Benedictine monastery, donated by Prince Odescalchi.
