Santa Maria del Popolo

Santa Maria del Popolo tickets: which one to buy

The church stands beside the northern gate of Rome, on the Piazza del Popolo, and it is free to enter, which makes it one of the best value hours in the city. Two coin machines light the chapels that matter; bring a euro. Guided walks devoted to Caravaggio include this church with San Luigi dei Francesi and Sant'Agostino, all three free and all three holding major canvases in situ, and that is the single most rewarding art itinerary in Rome for anyone who has already done the Vatican.

Renaissance-focused tours come instead for the Chigi chapel. The church closes over lunch and for services, and the hours are shorter than most visitors assume, so check before making the walk down from the Borghese gardens above. Nothing needs booking. The metro stops directly outside. The entrance is at the left of the front, and the main door is used only for services.

Visiting Santa Maria del Popolo: what to see

Two paintings by Caravaggio hang facing each other in a chapel to the left of the high altar: the conversion of Saint Paul, with the saint flat on his back beneath an enormous horse, and the crucifixion of Saint Peter, the cross being hauled upright by workmen whose faces are turned away. Both were painted about 1601 and both were rejected in a first version. Across the church, the Chigi chapel was designed by Raphael for a banker, with mosaics in the dome to his design, and finished more than a century later by Bernini, who added two of the four sculptures and the marble skeleton set into the floor.

Pinturicchio frescoed the vault of the chancel and several chapels in the 1490s. Bramante rebuilt the choir behind the altar. The church also carries the legend of Nero, whose remains were said to lie under a walnut tree on this spot until the tree was cut down and a chapel built over it. Two Bernini sculptures stand in the Chigi chapel and were added when a later member of the family became pope.

Santa Maria del Popolo opening hours and the best time to go

Come in the morning or in the late afternoon; the midday closure is long. Light matters less here than elsewhere because the two great chapels are lit artificially, but the church is dark on a winter afternoon and the machines are worth feeding twice. The square outside is used for concerts, political rallies and the end of marathons, and the streets running south from it are the main shopping spine of the centre.

The terrace of the Pincio, reached by the ramps at the eastern end of the square, gives the classic view over the rooftops and is five minutes away. Easter and Christmas fill the church for services. Allow an hour, which is more than most people give it and still not enough to see everything properly. The Augustinian friars still run the church, and Martin Luther stayed in their convent here in 1511.