Church of Santa Maria ai Monti
41 Via della Madonna dei Monti Roma
A Marvelous Church in the Monti District built on the site of an ancient Poor Clare monastery
Comissioned by Pope Gregory XIII and designed by Giacomo della Porta, the church's construction began in 1588 following a miracle at this location where a blind woman was healed in the presence of a Marian icon, which today can still be seen above the main altar.
On the vaulted ceiling is a fresco by Cristoforo Casolani in the 17th Century showing the "Ascension, between angels and doctors of the Church," and to the left in a side chapel is the tomb of St. Benedict Joseph Labre, a French mendicant who came from a wealthy family but chose to live as a beggar and died in a house adjacent to the church in 1783.