San Pietro in Montorio and the Tempietto Historical Timeline

A ninth-century church, rebuilt by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, given the most influential small building in Europe, and still Spanish today.

Chronology

1. 9th century — an earlier church dedicated to Saint Peter stands on this spot on Rome's Janiculum hill. Structural impact: the site established. What you see today: nothing of it, but the dedication and the position.
2. 15th century — the ruins are given to the Amadist friars, a reform branch of the Franciscans founded by the Blessed Amadeus of Portugal. Structural impact: a community takes the site on. What you see today: the conventual layout the complex still has.
3. 1481 — groundbreaking on the new church, rebuilt through the generous funding of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Structural impact: the church as it now stands. What you see today: the nave and the chapels.
4. 1500 — the church is consecrated by Pope Alexander VI. Structural impact: completion. What you see today: a finished late-quattrocento church.
5. c. 1502 — Bramante completes the Tempietto for the cloister, commissioned by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile to commemorate the site traditionally regarded as the location of Saint Peter's crucifixion. Structural impact: a free-standing circular martyrium in the courtyard. What you see today: the single most studied small building of the Renaissance.
6. never built — Bramante planned to surround the Tempietto with concentric rings of colonnades, the columns radially aligned to those of the building itself. This plan was never executed. Structural impact: none, which is the point. What you see today: a masterpiece in a courtyard too small for it, which is not how it was meant to be seen.
7. 1516–1524 — Sebastiano del Piombo paints the Flagellation and Transfiguration for the first chapel on the right. Structural impact: none to the fabric. What you see today: both works, in place.
8. 1599 — Beatrice Cenci is executed for the murder of her abusive father. Although there is no grave marker, tradition has it that she is buried below the high altar. Structural impact: none visible. What you see today: an unmarked floor, and one of Rome's most persistent stories.
9. 1640 — the Raimondi Chapel, second on the left, is designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Structural impact: a Baroque chapel inserted into a quattrocento church. What you see today: Bernini working at small scale, early.
10. 1849 — the original simple tombstone is lost during the Unification of Italy. The Janiculum was the line of the 1849 fighting. Structural impact: losses across the complex. What you see today: the absence of Cenci's marker.
11. December 2015 — the Real Academia de España creates a new accessible route through the complex, as a first step in eliminating architectural barriers. Structural impact: a modern intervention for access. What you see today: a way to the Tempietto that does not depend on steps.
12. today — the complex houses the Real Academia de España en Roma, open to the public Tuesday to Sunday 10.00–18.00, last admission 17.30, free. Structural impact: none. What you see today: a Spanish academy still looking after a building two Spanish monarchs paid for.

• Official website
• Wikipedia