Basilica of St. Maria sopra Minerva

The church gets its name from the Temple of Minerva Calcidica upon which it is believed to have been built in the early Middle Ages. It was built between the 1200s and the 1300s by dominican friars, modifying  a pre-existing church that belonged to the greek monks of Campus Martius. In the 1500s, Giuliano da Sangallo modified the choir and in the 1600s Carlo Maderno enlarged the apse. In the mid-1800s, its gothic elements were restored, although much had been completely lost to baroque renovations on the interior and the facade. Besides great masterworks, the church contains the tombstone of the painter Beato Angelico.
 

THINGS TO KNOW: On 22 June 1633 Galileo Galilei, accused of heresy, abjured his astronomical theses in the monastery adjoining the church, for centuries home to the Holy Inquisition.