Church of the Gesù

The draw

This is the church every Baroque church copied. The Gesù is the mother church of the Jesuits, and its façade has been called the first truly baroque façade — a model for Jesuit churches across Central Europe, the Portuguese colonies and beyond, into the twentieth century. Inside, Gaulli's Triumph of the Name of Jesus (1678–79) breaks out of its own frame and spills onto the vault in stucco and paint, and Andrea Pozzo's St Ignatius altar is the most extravagant thing in Rome that nobody queues for.

The problem when visiting

It closes for about four hours in the middle of every day, in both the winter and summer timetables, and the two timetables differ. Turning up at 14.00 is the standard mistake.

The tactic

Go in the morning or after 16.30, and check which season you are in. Winter runs from the last Sunday of September to 29 June. Allow fifty minutes, stand directly under the crossing first — the ceiling illusion only works from beneath — and it is free.

Plan around the midday closure rather than arriving and being annoyed. Roughly four hours, every day, in both seasons. The staff did not set it and cannot move it.

Dress as for any Roman church — shoulders and knees covered — and remember this is the mother church of an order with a full mass schedule, not a gallery.

Leave something. The church is free and it is four and a half centuries old. The offering boxes are how it is kept.

No flash. Gaulli's ceiling is thirty metres up; flash will not reach it and will spoil it for everyone else looking.

Go quietly at the St Ignatius chapel. It holds the saint's tomb and it is a place of pilgrimage for people who did not come for the architecture.

Spread out. Most visitors stop under the crossing and leave. The Borgia chapel, the Francis Xavier reliquary and Batoni's Sacred Heart are all worth the extra ten minutes, and they take pressure off the one spot everyone stands in.

It is free, and it closes at lunchtime

No admission charge. But the Gesù shuts for roughly four hours in the middle of every day, and that is the single commonest way to waste the journey.

Two timetables, and you need to know which you are in

WINTER — last Sunday of September to 29 June

SUMMER — 30 June to the last Saturday of September

Note the differences. Summer mornings close half an hour earlier and afternoons open half an hour later, so the midday gap is longer in summer, not shorter. Sundays open an hour later than weekdays in both seasons.

Ticket & Pass Decision Matrix

Getting there

Piazza del Gesù, in the rione of Pigna — on the Via del Plebiscito between Piazza Venezia and Largo di Torre Argentina, which is to say directly on the route most visitors already walk.

Dress and conduct

Shoulders and knees covered. It is an active church with a full mass schedule; visiting during a service is an intrusion.

On the ground

Allow fifty minutes. Stand under the crossing first for Gaulli's ceiling, then the St Ignatius chapel in the left transept, then Francis Xavier's reliquary opposite.

Morning, or after the afternoon reopening. The church is shut for about four hours in the middle of every day in both seasons, and that gap is the main thing to plan around.

Check which timetable applies. Winter runs from the last Sunday of September to 29 June; summer from 30 June to the last Saturday of September. Summer has the longer midday closure, not the shorter one — mornings end at 12.00 rather than 12.30, and afternoons start at 17.00 rather than 16.30.

Sundays start late. 8.30 rather than 7.30, in both seasons.

Bright mornings are best for the ceiling. Gaulli's fresco and the gilding need daylight through the dome windows; late on a dull afternoon the whole thing goes brown.

Avoid the mass times if you intend to look rather than attend — four services a day on winter weekdays, three in summer.