Free concerts and Pre-Raphaelite mosaics at St. Paul’s Within the Walls in Rome

The Anglican-Episcopalian church  St. Paul’s Within the Walls may not be the most famous worship place in Rome, but it’s well worth a visit if you happen to be walking down Via Nazionale near the Piazza della Repubblica-especially on a Sunday morning, when the 23-bell carillon starts singing to signal the start of the 10:30 service.

Built in the late 19^th century, St. Paul’s was the first Protestant church in the historic center of the Eternal City. Its first rector, Robert Jenkins Nevin, was an art dealer, which partly explains the wondrously decorated interior.

St. Paul’s chief treasure is a mosaic cycle in the apse and choir by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) with ethereally attenuated figures. The cycle tells Biblical stories and includes saints with the faces of famous men of the time like J.P. Morgan (a donor) and Abraham Lincoln.

The church is an evocative setting for the Luminaria Concert Series, a program of free musical entertainments held on Sunday evenings throughout March.

–Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 at 7:56 am by Susan Spano and is filed under Europe, Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.