Santa Maria del Popolo
39 06 488-991
The Site: This 15th century church—replacing an 11h century shrine built to exorcize Nero's evil ghost—was decorated by some of the titans of Renaissance and Baroque art, including Caravaggio, Pinturricchio, Sansovino, Raphael, and Bernini.
The Secret: The Chigi Chapel, designed by Raphael and completed by Bernini, commemorates Agostino Chigi, a Renaissance banker famous for throwing lavish feasts at his riverside villa. Like a debauched emperor of old, he had servants fling the soiled silver plates into the Tiber after each course. (No fool, he also had nets and a recovery squad downstream.)
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