San Giorgio in Velabro

San Giorgio in Velabro
Church of Saint George in the Velabrum
Chiesa di San Giorgio in Velabro
Map
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41°53′22.31″N 12°28′59.29″E / 41.8895306°N 12.4831361°E / 41.8895306; 12.4831361
LocationVia del Velabro 19, Rome
CountryItaly
Language(s)Italian
DenominationCatholic
TraditionRoman Rite
Religious orderCanons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross
Websitesangiorgioinvelabro.com
History
Statustitular church
DedicationSaint George
Architecture
StylePaleochristian, Romanesque
Groundbreaking7th century AD
Administration
DioceseRome
S. Giorgio can be seen in the View of the Cloaca Maxima, Rome by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg.
Interior of San Giorgio

San Giorgio in Velabro is a Catholic church dedicated to St. George on Via del Velabro in the historic center of Rome in the Velabrum and the Ripa district. The church—the result of the 9th century expansion of a previous diaconal building and subsequent remodeling—stands near the Arch of Janus in the small square of the Cloaca Maxima. The location of S. Giorgio is not far from the place where the founding legend of Rome places the discovery of the twins Romulus and Remus by the she-wolf.[1] The façade of the church encroaches upon and incorporates the Arcus Argentariorum, which was completed in 204 AD.

S. Giorgo falls within the territory of the parish of Santa Maria in Portico in Campitelli and is a rectory entrusted to the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross as well as a titular church, whose cardinal-deacons over the years have included Pope Boniface IX and Pope Martin V, as well as Pierre de Luxembourg (pseudocardinal of the Antipope Clement VII) and Saint John Henry Newman.

San Giorgio in Velabro is the station church for the first Thursday in Lent, established as such by Pope Gregory II.

  1. ^ History of the Church of San Giorgio in Velabro, The attack of July 1993 http://www.sangiorgioinvelabro.org/eng/storia.html Archived 2020-10-20 at the Wayback Machine Cristina Mazzoni, She-Wolf: The Story of a Roman Icon (Cambridge: CUP 2010), p. 162.