Santa Maria in Monserrato
​degli Spagnoli

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Map

Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli

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The 16th century church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli, the national church of the Spanish, is dedicated to the Madonna of Montserrat, an ancient and a much venerated image of the Virgin, which is located in a shrine on the mountain of Montserrat near Barcelona. 

Virgin and Child with Saw

​Montserrat translates as the 'serrated mountain', hence the presence of a saw in the sculpture of the Virgin and Child, above the entrance to the church.

Interior

The interior comprises a nave, which is flanked on each side by three chapels. 

Bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya

Santa Maria in Monserrato is home to an early work by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), his bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya (c. 1622). The likeness was so impressive that a cardinal observed: 'This is Montoya petrified'. It was Montoya who had commissioned Bernini to carve, perhaps a couple of years earlier, the Damned Soul and the Blessed Soul. 

​All three sculptures used to be housed in the Sacristy, but only the bust of Montoya remains; the other two sculptures were transferred to the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See. 

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