NUNZIATELLA, CEMETERY so called. — At the fourth mile of the Via Ardeatina, near the sanctuary of the N.
In 1877 a Christian hypogeum was discovered there, of which G. B. De Rossi gave a brief account (Scoperta d'un piccolo cimitero cristiano adorno di assai antiche pitture presso la chiesa della N. al quarto miglio della Via Ardeatina, in Bull. di arch. crit., 3rd series, 2 [1877], p. 136; 4th series, 1 [1882], p. 169; 5th series, 3 [1892], p. 28). Perhaps the Christian inscription of a Lucrezia Domizia, set into the floor of the nearby sanctuary, comes from this cemetery (M. Armellini, Gli antichi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia, Roma 1893, pp. 394–95). One cubicle contains the following frescoes from the late third or early fourth century: on the vault, Christ the Judge surrounded by four saints alternating with four deceased persons in prayer; on the entrance wall, two saints; on the left wall, Moses striking the rock and the healed paralytic; on the right, the miracle of the leper and the multiplication of the loaves; in the arcosolium opposite, Noah (Wilpert, Pitture, pp. 244, 248, 271–72, 318, 372; pls. 74–75; 76,2; 77, 1).
SANCTUARY OF THE N. - At the fourth mile of the Via Ardeatina there originally existed a pagus, and subsequently a Christian community, with its cemetery nearby (v. SORA). The Sanctuary is said to have been built where the ancient Silva Naevia stood, and Nevia was the name given to one of the gates of the Servian wall; according to some, the church with its hospital was established for the convenience of pilgrims crossing the Roman countryside to visit the churches in the Ostiense and Appian districts: S. Paolo, the Tre Fontane, and S. Sebastiano. Documents relating to the time of the Sanctuary’s first construction are lacking: an altar table, with crosses scratched by pilgrims, formerly in the church sacristy and now lost, certainly dated, on account of its antiquity, to a time before Honorius III (1216–27), during whose pontificate the church was dedicated in honour of the Virgin and all the saints on 9 August 1220. In 1640, the church was rebuilt in its present form by Cardinal F. Barberini, who consecrated it on 6 May 1657, as he was protector of the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone, which had owned the church at least since the first half of the fifteenth century. This is inferred from the inventory of property dated 1457, donated to the Company of the Disciplinati and Raccomandati di S. Maria, established there, for the upkeep of the church and the adjoining hospital.
The church, with a single nave (30 × 7 m), containing five altars, preserves a remnant of a rough Cosmatesque pavement and a small pointed white-marble tabernacle, decorated with mosaic, set into the left wall near the high altar, above which is a large fresco of the Annunciation (fifteenth century), unfortunately retouched. As early as the first years of the seventeenth century, the exterior façade was covered with frescoes: above, the emblem of the Gonfalone with angels and putti; on the pediment of the doorway, the coats of arms of Paul V, Cardinal Aldobrandini, the protector, and the Roman People; at the sides, SS. Apostles Peter and Paul.
In the past, the Sanctuary enjoyed great renown and was visited by pilgrims who, in addition to the traditional Seven Churches, added that of SS. Vincenzo and Anastasio at the Tre Fontane and this one of the N., which was regarded as one of the ex novem Urbis insignibus. An inscription from the time of Leo X records a restoration in 1518, while in its first part it reports the more ancient inscription concerning the dedication of the church in the time of Honorius III, with the date 1200 (instead of 1220); this is followed by a list of the relics enclosed in the altar; then mention is made, with another error in the date (1384 instead of 1394), of the indulgence granted by Boniface IX (1389–1404) for the feast of the Annunciation on the first Sunday of May.
The church is mentioned in the Catalogo of Signorili (the early years of the fifteenth century) and in later topographical and archival documents.
dell'Annunziatella, in Riv. di scien. stor., 1910, passim: C. Carletti, Il santuario dell'Annunziatella, excerpted from Stella Matutina, Rome 1941; M. Armellini-C. Cecchelli, Le Chiese di Roma, II, there 1942, pp. 1134–35. Carlo Carletti