A truly beautiful church, both on the outside and within. Surrounded by quiet backstreets and tiny parks it’s a peaceful retreat from the main city centre and whether you’re here for a service or just looking for some quiet time alone, it’s a gem.

The church of Santa Prisca, on the Aventine, was built on the ruins of an ancient Roman temple, most likely dedicated to Diana. Its origins are very ancient and could go back to the beginnings of the Christian era. They say, in fact, that St. Peter had lived in this place and that he celebrated his first masses here by giving baptism to the faithful who converted. When in the III sec. the body of the holy martyr Prisca was found, beheaded under the emperor Claudius, the bishop had it transported to this church, which had been already named after St.Aquila, so it became the church of St. Aquila and Prisca. According to tradition, Prisca was a young girl who was baptized by St. Peter. She was sentenced to death in the circus by Emperor Claudius, but the lions refused to touch her and she was eventually beheaded. A IIIrd century small oratory, probably dedicated to Prisca, was unearthed in 1776 in the proximity of the current church which was built in the Vth century. In the XVth century a fire destroyed the first three bays of the church. A lengthy inscription and a coat of arms celebrate the repairs made by Pope Calixtus III in 1456, but the building remained shortened, an indication of the reduced importance of the area. Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani belonged to a family of Genoese origin, but he was born in Scio (today Chios), a Greek island of the Aegean Sea which was ruled by his family. When the Ottomans occupied the island, the Giustiniani came to live in Rome and owing to their wealth they soon became one of the most important families of the city. Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani commissioned Carlo Lambardi a new façade for S. Prisca and he restored the whole building. In the XVIIIth century Pope Clement XII promoted a new restoration of the church. Notwithstanding the many changes that occurred throughout the centuries S. Prisca retains its original design: it has the shape of an ancient Roman basilica i.e. a large rectangular hall with two rows of columns dividing it into three naves with an apse at its end. Since 1935 the church is officiated by the Augustinian Catholic Fathers. The façade has a single order, reconstructed by architect Carlo Lombardi during C. XVII, and presents a little central portal flanked by two Roman granite columns, amidst two couples of portal strips and surmounted by a framed oculus.. The interior has three naves delimited by two rows of seven Ionian columns, which are walled into seventeenth-century pillars. On the main altar there is the painting of the "Baptism of Santa Prisca" (ca. 1600) by Domenico Passignano. The frescoes, in the central nave, are by Anastasio Fontebuoni, who made them at the beginning of the 17th century: among them stands out a representation of "Saints and Angels with the instruments of the Passion". In the baptistry, first on the left, there is an ancient culumn capital, allegedely used by St. Peter as baptismal font to baptize St. Prisca. The excavations that began in 1934 have led to the retrieval of a Roman house from C. I, probably where Aquila and Priscilla, parents to the Saint, used to live, and a Mithraeum, sanctuary or temple of the god Mithras. dating back to C.I. This structure dedicated to the cult of Mithras was built over a more ancient construction. It was probably built on this site as Christians sought to wipe out the surviving pagan cult of the god Mithras. The walls are decorated with frescoes representing the various initiation phases into the cult of Mithras. For each one of the seven phases, there is a corresponding planet. The church’s crypt (C.IX - X) houses the relics of St. Prisca. We liked this lovely, ancient church with truly interesting historical finds. You should visit the ancient mithraeum as well.