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Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the Bocca della Verità

Discover Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the Bocca della Verità

Last updated on October 1, 2026

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Checked against Wikipedia — The Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin is a minor basilica in the rione of Ripa in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary, constructed first in the sixth century as a diaconia in an area of the city populated by Greek immigrants where it celebrated Eastern rites, and it currently serves the Melkite Greek Catholic community of Rome; it was expanded in the eighth century and renovated in the twelfth when a campanile was added, a Baroque facade and interior refurbishment of 1718 were removed in 1894 to 1899 with the exterior restored to twelfth-century form while the architecture of the interior recalls the eighth century with twelfth-century furnishings, and the narthex contains the famous Bocca della Verità sculpture, The basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin is in an area of Rome along the Tiber that once housed the Forum Boarium, the ancient cattle market, and a complex of temples and shrines to Hercules; archaeologists discovered a platform of ancient tufa under the crypt of the church which they have tentatively identified as part of the Great Altar of Unconquered Hercules, possibly dating from the sixth century BCE, and a later building on the site had a colonnaded loggia probably constructed in the fourth century CE, thought by some to have been a statio annonae, one of the government-run food distribution centers of ancient Rome, while other scholars believe it was one of the buildings dedicated to Hercules (October 2026).

Architecture