Basilica of Sant’ Andrea della Valle

Built along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II on order of Donna Costanza Piccolomini d’Aragona, the basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle is the seat of the religious order of the Theatines, a religious order of the Catholic Church. Work started in 1591 on project by Giacomo della Porta, later substituted for the architect Carlo Maderno, who completed both the interior and the Baroque dome, the second for height in Rome after Michelangelo’s St. Peter dome. The travertine façade was later realised in 1665 by Carlo Rinaldi, on the model of the Church of the Gesù. The church has a large central aisle, 8 lateral chapels, transept and apse. Wonderful the fresco decoration of the dome, one of the largest commissions of its day, in which both the Carracci pupils, Giovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino were employed. Among the people buried in the church are the humanist Pope Pius II Piccolomini and Monsignor della Casa, author of the famous Galateo, a Renaissance treatise on etiquette.