3-028-562 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bambino of the Ara Coeli, at Rome, 1870. 'The Church of S. Maria di Ara Coeli is built on the site of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus...There are some fragments of Gothic architecture in its front, as in the door of the north aisle, shown in our Artist's sketch...Its repute is owing to a very sacred image of the infant Saviour which belongs to the church...There is a curious custom in this church, which...brings a crowd of people...The sacred image is brought out to the front of the church, and is held up to bless the people...The church...has a very long stair of 121 marble steps. These steps were covered with a dense mass of people; the street below and the way up to the Capitol were also filled with the crowd...on the top of the great stair the bambino was held up. This festival is called "the Presepe." The image itself is covered with the costly jewellery which it has received at times for cures which it performs; for it is taken out to sick persons, and it has a larger practice, and receives more fees, than the best doctor in Rome. The tradition is that a pilgrim carved it from a piece of a tree from the Mount of Olives, and that he fell asleep, and that St. Luke finished his work by painting it'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.