San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

Interesting facts

Romans call it San Carlino, and its whole floor area is often said to fit inside one of the four piers that carry the dome of St Peter's.

Borromini built the plan geometrically from two equilateral triangles sharing a common base along the church's cross axis.

Groups of three recur throughout the interior, from the angels in the pendentives to the rows of coffers, in tribute to the Trinity venerated by the order.

Borromini favoured humble plaster and stucco over costly marble, in keeping with both the friars' poverty and his own taste.

The triangular balusters of the cloister alternate upright and inverted, which Borromini said improved the view from the upper gallery down to the ground floor.

Sixteen columns, arranged in groups of four, carry a single continuous cornice that runs unbroken around the undulating walls.

Borromini prepared a chapel in the crypt for his own tomb, but he was eventually buried in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini.

One of the four fountains of the crossroads, a reclining figure of the river Tiber, is set into the church complex's own outer wall.

In 1999 Mario Botta built a wooden model of the church, sliced lengthwise, on the lakefront of Lugano for a Borromini exhibition; it stood until 2003.

The interior geometry was copied in 1662 for the church of the Madonna del Prato in Gubbio, which differs from its model only in its facade.

Why it is worth it

San Carlo is so small that it would get lost in most Roman churches: the whole building measures only about 20 by 12 metres. Yet into that cramped corner plot Francesco Borromini fitted one of the most inventive spaces of the Baroque, and it was his first independent commission. He took it on in 1634 for the Spanish Discalced Trinitarians, an order devoted to ransoming Christians held as slaves, and is said to have offered his work without fee in order to launch his career on his own.

The church was built between 1638 and 1641 and consecrated in 1646. Its walls ripple in and out around an elongated plan, and above them rises an oval dome whose surface is covered with a deep, interlocking pattern of coffers, crosses, octagons and hexagons, which shrink as they climb towards the lantern. The effect is of a dome much higher than it really is. Light enters through windows hidden around the base of the oval, so that the coffering seems to float, and the brightest point is the lantern at the top, where the symbol of the Trinity sits. Borromini also designed the tiny cloister beside the church, begun in 1635, with its octagonal well-head and unusual triangular balusters, and a crypt beneath the church in which he intended to be buried.

The undulating façade, with its concave and convex bays stacked in two storeys, was the last thing Borromini worked on: it was still unfinished when he died in 1667, and the work was completed by his nephew Bernardo, continuing until 1682. Over the main door, winged herms frame a statue of St Charles Borromeo by Antonio Raggi. The church stands on one corner of the Quattro Fontane crossroads, where four fountains are set diagonally into the corners of the buildings, and a few steps away is Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, so the two great rivals of Roman Baroque can be compared within a single short walk.

Getting there

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is in central Rome on the Quirinal Hill, about 2 km from the historic centre. The nearest airport is Ciampino (CIA), about 14 km away; Rome's main airport, Fiumicino, is further out.

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From the encyclopaedia

The church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, also called San Carlino, is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, Italy. The church was designed by the architect Francesco Borromini and it was his first independent commission. It is an iconic masterpiece of Baroque architecture, built as part of a complex of monastic buildings on the Quirinal Hill for the Spanish Trinitarians, an order dedicated to the freeing of Christian slaves. He received the commission in 1634, under the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, whose palace was across the road. However, this financial backing did not last and subsequently the building project suffered various financial difficulties. It is one of at least three churches in Rome dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, including San Carlo ai Catinari and San Carlo al Corso.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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