The Church of Santa Maria della Concezione and it’s Treasures

In the heart of Rome, along the famous Via Veneto, there is the evocative church of Santa Maria della Concezione, also known as the Church of the Capuchins. The construction, started in 1626, was initiated by Pope Urban VIII Barberini and his brother Antonio who was part of the Franciscan order. The church is striking for its sober composure and elegance. The single nave displays important paintings of the Roman baroque, here worked the greatest exponents of the two strands that animated the 17th century: on the one hand we find Guido Reni, Domenichino and Lanfranco followers of classicism, and from the other is the extraordinary Caravaggio-inspired naturalism of the Nordic painter Gerard van Honthorst (Gherardo delle notti).

The Crypt and the Museum of the Capuchins

The pearl of the complex is certainly the crypt-ossuary, located below the church it is decorated with the bones of approximately 4000 Capuchin friars, collected between 1528 and 1870. In the crypt, made up of several chapels, there are some bodies of mummified friars dressed in their typical Capuchin habits, while on the walls there are extraordinary rococo decorations entirely made of bones which magically become pilasters, stars, flowers and even chandeliers. The apparently macabre decoration becomes expedient to exorcise death and underline how the body is nothing but a container of the soul. Also worthy of note is the visit to the Museum of the Order of the Friars Minor (Capuchins) of the Province of Rome that unites the church with the crypt in a pleasant itinerary made up of eight rooms, thanks to which it is possible to understand the spirituality of the religious order of the Capuchins, based on an intense mysticism and a sober lifestyle.