 Introduction
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th century church of Rome, located in the Trastevere rione and devoted to Saint Cecilia.
The church and active convent with a fine garden stands on the site of the home of St. Cecilia, who, along with her husband Valerian, was martyred in the 2nd century. Valerian was executed for refusing to worship Roman gods and who herself was subsequently persecuted for Christian beliefs. Her body was found incorrupt in 1599, complete with deep axe cuts in her neck; a statue under the altar depicts the way it was found. The church contains a celebrated 13th-century fresco of The Last Judgment by Pietro Cavallini and in the crypt you can tour her Roman house.
 History
St Cecilia, described in her Life as Coeli Lilia (the Lily of Heaven), was one of the early Christian martyrs who were always much venerated in Rome and became the subject of numerous legends. The story has it that Cecilia was locked in the caldarium of her own baths for several days but refused to die, singing her way through the ordeal (Cecilia is patron saint of music). Her head was finally half hacked off with an axe, though it took several blows before she finally succumbed.
The first church of Santa Cecilia was founded probably in the 5th century, by Pope Urban I, and devoted to the Roman martyr Cecilia. Tradition holds that the church was built over the house of the saint. The baptistery of this church, together with the remains of a Roman Imperial house, was found during some excavations under the Chapel of the Relics. In the synod of 499 of Pope Symmachus, the church is indicated with the Titulus Ceciliae. On 22 November 545, Pope Vigilius was celebrating the saint in the church, when the emissary of Empress Theodora, Antemi Scribone, captured him.
Pope Paschal I rebuilt the church in 822, and moved here the relics of St Cecilia from the catacombs of St Calixtus. More restorations followed in the 18th century.
 Location
Address:Via Anicia Piazza Santa Cecilia 2, I-00186 Rome, Italy
Transit: Bus: 44, 75, 170, or 181
 What's to see
The church features a grand courtyard, porch, garden, twelfth-century bell tower, (facade by Ferdinando Fuga, 1725), a wide nave with rows of columns, chancel and apse. In the chancel there is a marble ciborium by Arnolfo di Cambio (1283) and a figure of St Cecilia carved by Stefano Maderna in 1600 (a year after the discovery of a tomb containing the body of a young girl in this position). The apse has a mosaic dating from the reign of Pope Paschal I (ninth century). Special permission is required to visit the adjoining convent, which contains a magnificent Last Judgment by Pietro Cavallini (1293) a masterpiece of Roman medieval painting. The church is built on the reputed site of Cecilia's long-ago palace, and for a small fee you can descend under the church to inspect the ruins of some Roman houses as well as peer through a gate at the stuccoed grotto beneath the altar.
 Useful information
Telephone:06-5899289
Open: Main church and excavations: daily 9:30am-12:30pm and 4-6:30pm; frescoes: Mon-Sat 10:15am-12:15pm, Sun 11:15am-12:15pm
 Links
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