Nunziatella, Cemetery Known as the

NUNZIATELLA, Cemetery Known as the. - 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 notice (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 from this cemetery comes the Christian inscription of a Lucrezia Domizia, placed in the floor of the nearby sanctuary (M. Armellini, Gli antichi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia, Rome 1893, pp. 394-95). A cubiculum contains the following frescoes from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 4th century: on the vault, Christ as 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 paralytic healed; 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 NUNZIATELLA

At the fourth mile of the Via Ardeatina there originally existed a pagus, and then a Christian community, with its cemetery nearby (v. above). The Sanctuary would have been built where the ancient Silva Naevia was, and a gate of the Servian wall was called Naevia; according to some, the church with its hospital would have arisen for the convenience of pilgrims who crossed the Roman countryside to visit the churches of the Ostian and Appian zones: St. Paul's, the Tre Fontane, St. Sebastian's. There is nevertheless a lack of documents relating to the time of the first construction of the Sanctuary: an altar table, with crosses scratched by pilgrims, once in the sacristy of the church and today vanished, certainly pointed, by its antiquity, to a time earlier than Honorius III (1216-27), under whose pontificate the church was dedicated in honor of the Virgin and of all the saints, on 9 August 1220. In 1640, the temple was rebuilt in its present form by Cardinal F. Barberini, who consecrated it on 6 May 1657, he being protector of the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone, which had owned the church at least since the first half of the 15th century. This is inferred from the inventory of the properties of the year 1457, donated to the Company, established there, of the Disciplinati and Raccomandati of St. Mary, for the maintenance of the church and of the adjoining hospital.

The church, with a single nave (30 × 7 m.), with five altars, preserves a remnant of a rough Cosmatesque pavement and a small tabernacle of white marble, pointed, adorned with mosaic, placed in the left wall, near the high altar, above which stands a large fresco of the Annunciation (15th century), unhappily retouched. The external facade, already in the early years of the 17th century, was covered with frescoes: at the top the emblem of the Gonfalone with angels and putti; on the pediment of the door, the coats of arms of Paul V, of Cardinal Aldobrandini, protector, and of the Roman People; at the sides, the holy apostles Peter and Paul.

The Sanctuary had, in the past, great celebrity and was visited by pilgrims, who, to the seven traditional Churches, added that of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius at the Tre Fontane and this one of the N., which was considered one ex novem Urbis insignibus. An inscription from the time of Leo X records a restoration of the year 1518, while in its first part it reports the more ancient one of the dedication of the church at the time of Honorius III, with the date 1200 (instead of 1220); there follows the list of the relics, enclosed in the altar; then mention is made, with a new error of date (1384, instead of 1394), of the indulgence granted by Boniface IX (1389-1404), for the feast of the Annunciation, for the first Sunday of May.

The church is remembered in the Catalogo of Signorili (early years of the 15th century) and in later topographical and archival documents.

Carlo Carletti