The entrance tower to the first courtyard of the complex of Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome: The gothic transformation of the pre–existing classical and romanesque structures
The church of Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome, installed inside a domus ecclesiae subsequently chosen as the titular church of a cardinal, was built on the site of a sumptuous late–antique domus of the fourth century AD.
The process of historical transformation and superimposition of the architectural complex exemplifies the uninterrupted continuity with the “memory” of the classical world typical of medieval art. It was realized also through the re–use of spolia from ancient monuments.
Standing imposingly on top of the Caelian hill, the large basilica complex, inspired by Constantinian models, was built by Pope Leo IV (847–855). It was intended to enshrine the relics of the Holy Martyrs and offer them to the veneration of pilgrims. The central nucleus around which it was built was the apsidal aula for receptions of the Roman domus.
The church, which also played a strategic role in the defence of the papal seat at the Lateran, was sacked by the Normans of Robert Guiscard in 1087. After a period of abandonment, it was then restored by Pope Paschal II (1099–1118), who reconstructed it a fundamentis and in minoribus spatiis, and installed in it a monastic community adjacent to the cardinal’s residence.
The large and homogeneous original complex was thus broken up into a number of separate units. Within the pre–existing Carolingian structures of the ninth century, re–used with the same logic as the spolia of a classical monument, a new church of reduced dimensions was built. Two communities were laid out round it: the monastic community gravitating around the south–west cloister, and that of the court of the titular cardinal, situated in sumptuous fortified accommodation laid out between the first and the second courtyard and overlooking the Via dei Santi Quattro.
In 1561 a girls’ orphanage, entrusted to Augustinian nuns, was founded by Pope Pius IV (1559–1593) on the site. This led to the reunification of the complex and its reconstruction to suit its new purpose, which required large rooms and dormitories.
The complex transformations undergone by the monument sometimes make it difficult to distinguish the individual building phases. But the programme of restoration conducted by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali e Architettonici di Roma between 1989 and 1999 permitted new light to be shed on the original layout of some parts of the building.
The ninth century tower, whose early medieval decoration in polychrome plaster was ascertained, originally had a monumental character. The elaborate arcaded structure of its western elevation made particularly luminous the large atrium providing access to the first courtyard below the tower. It was open on all four sides, thanks to large arcades with arched lintels built of bipedales.
In the subsequent gothic phase the blocking of the arcades and the realization of the pointed archway leading into the courtyard, lends the tower its present defensive, closed and compact character.
