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Only in the 10th
century the church built in the 4th century took the second name of
S.Alessio (St.Alexis) under which it is popularly known at present.
The church obtained greater importance thanks to the houses gifted
by Alberich II, dominator in Rome between 930-954, for the creation
of a monastery. The latter hosted in 977 the Greek runaway monks
from Damascus because of persecutions of Arabs, they brought
extremely venerated in East cult of St.Alexis joined to the title of
the church.
- In that epoch
the church became a center of missionary activity: from here
started their way the apostle of Bohemia and Hungary
S.Adalberto, apostle of Poland S.Guadenzio, apostle of
Russia and Prussia, S.Bonifacio.
- The church
possesses a Romanesque bell-tower, but it has totally 18th
century aspect. In reality the church was completely
transformed already in 1582 by the priests; in the 17th
century cardinal Guidi Di Bagno ordered one more
reconstruction, and in 1750 for the private initiative of
cardinal Querini the church was radically transformed by
Tommaso De Marchis; the latest intervention took place in
the middle of the 19th century when the ceiling and apse
were decorated.
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- In the
beginning of the left nave there is the 18th century chapel
named "Scala di S.Alessio"; here is conserved the
rests of a stair case under which St.Alexis lived for 17
years unrecognized by anybody. He was a son of noble family
and to avoid the marriage his father wanted to impose,
Alessio runaway from home in direction of Syria and returned
after numerous years in the house of his family but was
taken for a poor pilgrim and was offered a place to live
under the stair case. The legend says that in the moment of
his death all the bell towers of Rome started ringing on
their own. The adjoining monastery palace is a seat of
Istituto di Studi Romani (Institute of Roman Studies)
founded by Carlo Galassi Paluzzi in 1925. This palace was
built by a noble Crescenzi family in the 10th century, and
was reconstructed and restored in the same periods of time
with the church. Here should be noticed a big Renaissance
cloister which conserved its original character
notwithstanding the restoration works. It contains a funeral
tablet of one of the members of Crescenzi family, who
struggled against the domination of German kings Otto, and
later became a monk due to remorse for killing the pope
Benedict VI.
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P.zza S. Alessio, 23
 065743446
BUS 81
160 628 715 810
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