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Church of St Lucy of the Gonfalone: Baroque style, prisoners, and an organ from 1882
Located at Via dei Banchi Vecchi 12, in the Regola district of Rome, the Church of Santa Lucia del Gonfalone has been documented since the late 12th century. In the 1800s, it was still the site of the Spasa, a fair held on December 13th, where Roman women brought wax and silver eyes as ex-voto offerings to the patron saint of sight. Benvenuto Cellini, saved from an eye injury during his work as a goldsmith, even donated one himself, as recounted in his autobiography, The Life.
The Archconfraternity and Restoration work
The church was run by the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone, one of Rome's oldest congregations, founded in the 13th century. They restored it in both 1511 and 1603. Its Late-Baroque reconstruction is attributed to Marco David, while its current appearance is the result of a 19th-century renovation by Francesco Azzurri, featuring frescoes by Cesare Mariani commissioned during the papacy of Pius IX.
Interior Features
The church features a single nave with three chapels on each side. The high altar, attributed to Giuseppe Rinaldi, houses a 16th-century panel of the Madonna del Gonfalone and a copy of the Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the Roman People), attributed to Livio Agresti. On the choir loft sits the pipe organ built by Nicola Morettini (1882), housed in a Neoclassical wooden case. The sacristy contains a late 17th-century canvas attributed to Ermenegildo Costantini.
