St. Paul's Within the Walls ( it, San Paolo dentro le Mura), also known as the American Church in Rome, is a church of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe on Via Nazionale in

Castro Pretorio Castro Pretorio is the 18th ''rione'' of Rome (Italy), identified by the initials R. XVIII, and it is located within the Municipio I. The ''rione'' takes its name by the ruins of the '' Castrum Praetorium'', the barracks of the Praetorian Guard, ...

, Rome. It was the first Protestant church to be built in Rome.Cooper (2003), pp. 150–151. Designed by English architect

George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...

in Gothic Revival style, it was built in

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

brick and stone,MacCarthy (2011), pp. 351–352. and completed in 1880. The church contains

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s which are the largest works of the English

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

artist

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

Construction

Building a Protestant church in Rome became possible after the Kingdom of Italy's Capture of Rome from the Papacy in 1870. The Episcopal expatriate congregation in Rome commissioned Street in 1872. The cornerstone was laid in 1873, and the church was inaugurated in 1876.

Mosaics

Christ Enthroned in the Heavenly Jerusalem, St Paul's

Street approached Burne-Jones in 1881, but died the same year. The congregation's

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

, Robert J. Nevin, travelled to England to confirm and expand the commission. Burne-Jones was eager to emulate the mosaics of Ravenna, which he had visited in 1873. Burne-Jones designed cartoons which he sent to Venice, together with specifications for the colours to be used. The Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Company mounted

tesserae A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus. Historical tesserae The oldest known tessera ...

onto the cartoons, and the resulting assemblies were then installed in the church. The selection of colours, based on sample tiles sent to England by the company, was a collaboration between Burne-Jones and

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

. Burne-Jones did not travel to Italy to supervise the work, instead sending his assistant, Thomas Rooke. There are four Burne-Jones mosaics. ''The Annunciation'' and ''The Tree of Life'', both completed in 1894, are over successive arches of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

, leading towards the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

, whose

semi-dome In architecture, a semi-dome (or half-dome) is a half dome that covers a semi-circular area in a building. Architecture Semi-domes are a common feature of apses in Ancient Roman and traditional church architecture, and in mosques and iwans in Isla ...

displays ''Christ Enthroned in the Heavenly Jerusalem'',MacCarthy (2011), pp. 354–357. completed in 1885. The fourth mosaic, known as ''The Earthly Paradise'' or ''The Church Militant'', lower down on the wall of the apse, was completed in 1907 by Rooke, after Burne-Jones's death. Burne-Jones set the Annunciation scene in a desert, while ''The Tree of Life'' shows Christ in the pose of

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

but superimposed on a verdant tree. In the depiction of the

Heavenly Jerusalem In the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible, New Jerusalem (, ''YHWH šāmmā'', YHWH sthere") is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city centered on the rebuilt Holy Temple, the Third Temple, to be established in Jerusalem, which would be the c ...

, Christ is flanked by archangels, with an empty space representing

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passa ...

's vacated position. The fourth mosaic includes figures with faces modelled on contemporary people. The church also contains mosaics by the American artist George Breck.

Joel Nafuma Refugee Center (JNRC)

Located at St. Paul's Within the Walls Episcopal Church, the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center (JNRC) is a day center for refugees in the heart of Rome, founded in 1982.Joel Nafuma Refugee Center at St. Paul's website
''stpaulsrome.it'', accessed 17 October 2018 The scope of services offered in the center range from basic assistance to settlement services, and aim to address the needs of the whole person. Staff and volunteers accompany guests in their struggle to rebuild their lives through ongoing art and psychotherapy programs and legal support. This spectrum of services aims to address the immediate and urgent needs of newly arrived guests, as well as the needs of guests who (due to the

Dublin Regulation The Dublin Regulation (Regulation No. 604/2013; sometimes the Dublin III Regulation; previously the Dublin II Regulation and Dublin Convention) is a European Union (EU) law that determines which EU Member State is responsible for the examina ...

) will seek to rebuild their lives in Italy. In October 2018, the US Ambassador

Callista Gingrich Callista Louise Gingrich (née Bisek; March 4, 1966) is an American businesswoman, author, documentary film producer and former diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 2017 to 2021. She is married to former House Sp ...

visited to make a formal presentation of a grant from the U.S. Department of State's Julia Taft Refugee Fund.Ambassador Gingrich Presents Joel Nafuma Refugee Center with Julia Taft Refugee Fund Grant
''va.usembassy.gov'', accessed 17 October 2018

Notes

References

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External links