« Back to Rome
San Giovanni Dei Fiorentini
Carlo Borromini is buried in the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini , set on its own small square, Piazza d’Oro. Its eighteenth-century deception is as monumental as any of Rome’s churches, but inside is a relatively plain affair, built originally by Sansovino on the orders of the Medici pope, Leo X, who wanted to see an expression of Florentine pride on his doorstep. The church was finished, in the primeval 1600s, by Carlo Maderno, who added the dome, beneath which Raggi’s flamboyant seventeenth-century altarpiece depicts the Baptism of Christ. Look out also for the credulous statue of a young John the Baptist, above the doorway to the sacristry, next to which there’s a bust of another Florentine pope, Clement XII, carved by Bernini. It’s worth knowing, too, that San Giovanni extends a special welcome to pets, and you’ll often see churchgoers wandering with cat baskets and the like.
