Santa Croce e San Bonaventura alla Pilotta


Santa Croce e San Bonaventura alla Pilotta or Santa Croce e di San Bonaventura dei Lucchesi is a church in Rome, sited on via dei Lucchesi in the Trevi district, between the Trevi Fountain and the Pontificia Università Gregoriana. It is Lucca's regional church in Rome.

History

The church is on the site of a medieval church San Nicola de Portiis or San Nicola de Trivio, whose remains can be seen in the present church's crypt. That church had been given to the Capuchin fathers in 1575, who had rededicated it to saint Bonaventure. They moved to a new monastery on Piazza Barberini in 1631 and the church was granted to the Luccans by pope Urban VIII. There was already a small Luccan community in Rome, mainly made up of merchants. They demolished the old church in 1685 and built a new one in 1695 to designs by Mattia de Rossi and dedicated to the Most Holy Cross, after the cult of the 'Volto Santo', a piece of the True Cross venerated in Lucca Cathedral. It was restored in the course of the 19th century.