Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

The church of Santo Stanislao dei Polacchi, built in 1582, is the national church of the Poles living in Rome. The present church was built on a medieval church mentioned in documents from 1174 and 1209. Pope Gregory XIII granted the church to the Polish Cardinal Stanislaus Osio who, in the 1580s, had the church completely rebuilt and dedicated it to the patron saint of Poland, St Stanislaus Szczepanowski.

The church of Santo Stefano del Cacco was built in its present form in 1607 on an ancient medieval church probably dating from the 9th century. The bell tower, now part of the nearby monastery, and the apse date from the 12th century. Pope Pius IV granted it to the Silvestrin Fathers in 1563, with the charge of caring for souls. The church was restored by the same fathers in 1607 and again in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The church of Santo Stefano was built between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century by the hermit friars of Saint Augustine, who had settled in Venice towards the end of the 13th century. It was rebuilt in the 14th century and underwent major extensions in the 15th century. In 1810, with the suppression of the religious orders, it was separated from the convent and became a parish church.

The church of Sotterra is an underground church or hypogeum, accessed by a staircase from the porch of the church of the Carmine which overlooks it. Little is known about the origin of the church, the date and the authors of the frescoes. The discovery of the church dates back to 1874, thanks to Giovanni Battista Moscato of San Lucido, who reported on it in 1889, but it was not until 1926 that the first detailed descriptions appeared.

The Chiesa e Centro Pastorale Papa Giovanni XIII, is a modern religious building conceived from 1994 to 2004 by architect Mario Botta. It is made of reinforced concrete, its interior consists of a single hall made with Verona red marble, wood and steel. The building faces the 18th-century church of San Alessandro Martire.

The church and convent of the Capuchins of Teramo, a complex that was once called St. Benedict, were built before 1150. After 1573 it was entrusted to the care of the Capuchin Fathers when it was also known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception. After the definitive suppression of the convent in 1866, the municipality of Teramo took over the ecclesiastical property. While the church remained open for worship, the convent premises were partly abandoned and partly used as a kindergarten and public school.

The church and the convent of San Domenico were built separately in the 13th century, the convent in the mid-13th century while the church dates from the late 13th century. The large cloister was joined in the 14th century by the portico of the Magdalene, and in the 16th century by another cloister, called the cloister of Fra' Paolino. The convent was suppressed in 1783 but the Dominicans eventually returned in 1928.

The ancient church and convent of San Francesco date back to the early 13th century. It was restored, together with the Franciscan convent to which it was attached, during the 16th and 17th centuries. Damaged by the earthquake of 1919, it has recently been restored. There are traces of frescoes from the 14th and late 16th centuries.

The church of San Pancrazio, or Mother Church, was built between the first half of the 18th century and 1765. In 1908, the present facade, designed in 1901 by Ernesto Basile, was erected, characterising the panorama of the town with its white and imposing mass.

The Mother Church of Gela or Church of Santa Maria Assunta, built between 1760 and 1844, is an example of neoclassicism that stands out in the historic centre of the Gulf city. The present church replaced the 14th-century church of Santa Maria de' Platea. It was probably built from the stone blocks of the old church, which in turn came from the temples and monuments of the ancient Greek city.