One of the most hidden churches of Rome is that one of Santa Maria of the Seven Sorrows in Trastevere. It is also one of the most curious churches, surely architecturally speaking. Let's discover it, reminding how we are going to see a building designed by the famous architect Borromini. 

Going up the slopes of the Janiculum hill, before arriving in the complex of Sant'Onofrio, you can see on the left a very special building, with the bricks of the masonry in sight. To understand the church, however, you must also know the adjacent monastery, inhabited by the so-called oblate. This religious order of women, approved at the 1663 by pope Alexander VII, it housed the daughters of noble families, and forfeitures that they wanted to give themselves to the monastic life and that, above all, relegated to a monastic life all those girls who, because of their poor health, could not hope in a husband. The entire complex, the church and monastery, was designed and built by Francesco Borromini, the master of the baroque architecture  who embellished Rome in several ways, as we can see observing the marvelous church in Piazza Navona.

His style is unmistakable, with its curved lines, concave and convex, it is mixed with the particularity of the walls built with bricks of raw, almost squared. Even today, not if he knows the reason, but probably Borromini had not completed the project due to lack of funds. Before the main but small nave of the church there is a small central vestibule, clearly inspired by some of the buildings of the famous Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. But the game of curved lines is also visible on the inside, in the nave, rectangular with rounded corners. Once again you can see the hand of Borromini! To complete the sacred beauty of the Church of Santa Maria of the Seven Sorrows, there are some paintings of masters of the XIX century, as the "Trinity" by Maratta. But there is more.

This church and the monastery, including the order of the oblates, was particularly felt by the jewish community: in the course of the nazi roundups in fact, the monastery was a point of reference and refuge for the jews of Rome. The nuns, the oblates were able to hide well 103 of jews, who, of course, if caught they would have done a bad end. In short the story of the Church of Santa Maria of the Seven Sorrows crosses four centuries, between Borromini and the persecution against the jews, which continues still today. It was in the course of the last century that a group of individuals purchased a part of the monastery, destined to the creation and implementation of a hotel. From church to hotel, the step was short in this case. But this can also happen in Rome!