Overview
One of Rome's Baroque monuments, built between 1644 and 1650 by order of Cardinal Mazarin, is known as the Chiesa del Canneto. This is due to the abundance of no less than 18 columns on its façade, giving it the appearance of a reed bed. Cardinal Mazarin's insignia is placed on the tympanum, but there is also a bust of one of his nieces, a rare feature in Rome as a statue of a laywoman. Two statues of bare-breasted women on the façade are another rarity. On the inside, the apsidal tombstones are a tribute to the precordiums of almost all the popes, from Pope Sixtus V to Pope Leo XIII, who are preserved here.
