The Church of Trinità dei Monti is located in Campo Marzio, an area originally purchased by St. Francesco di Paola to realize the Convent of the Order of Minims. The land was later sold to the Venetian Barbaro family. The Church, which dominates Spanish Square and the homonymous Staircase, is one of five places of worship in which the celebrations are officiated also in French (St. Louis of France, St. Nicholas of Lorraine, St. Ivo of Bretons and St. Claudio and Andrea of the Burgundians) because of the link with the "Fraternity of Jerusalem". The first part of the Church was built between 1502 and 1519 in the Gothic style, covered by ogival vaults and bounded by a bronze railing. To the Gothic nave, was later added a new building, covered by a barrel vault, with the facade adorned with two symmetrical towers (one with a clock, the other with a sundial) by Giacomo della Porta and Carlo Maderno. The Church was consecrated in 1585 by Pope Sixtus V. The interior is characterized by the presence of the richly decorated chapels: Daniele da Volterra had realized, in 1541, the famous cycle of frescoes including the "Deposition", unanimously considered one of the Mannerism masterpieces; the "Massimo Chapel" retains, however, a series of frescoes by Perino del Vaga, "Stories of the Old and New Testament", in 1537, completed by Taddeo and Federico Zuccari. The "Baptism of Christ" and the frescoes of the "Chapel of St. John the Baptist" are the work of Giovanni Battista Naldini (1580). The Convent is characterized by the "Perspective Gallery", painted by Andrea Pozzo, with singular examples of anamorphosis (optical illusion) by Jean François Niceron and Emanuel Maignan; and the "Room of Ruins", with frescoes by Charles-Louis Clérisseau, late eighteenth century. In front of the Church stands the Sallustian Obelisc, by Pope Pius VI in the eighteenth century in imitation of those Egyptians.

(Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blek_gallery/; Wikipedia)