Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva

The draw

It is the only Gothic church in Rome, and it is free. Every other medieval church in the city was refurbished in the Baroque era; the Minerva kept its arched vaulting, painted blue with gilded stars and trimmed in red during a nineteenth-century restoration. Inside are Michelangelo's Cristo della Minerva, Filippino Lippi's Carafa Chapel frescoes, and the tombs of Saint Catherine of Siena and Fra Angelico. Outside, Bernini's elephant carries the shortest of Rome's eleven Egyptian obelisks.

The problem when visiting

Nobody publishes its opening hours. The basilica's own site shows them only as an undated image with no text, and Turismo Roma gives mass times with a warning that they change and that you should ring first. It is also an active Dominican basilica, so it closes for services.

The tactic

It is one block east of the Pantheon — try the door on your way past rather than making a journey of it. Telephone 333 7468785 if the timing matters. Allow forty-five minutes, and stand on the central axis first: the star-vault is the thing you came for and it reads best down the length of the nave.

Treat it as a church, not an overflow from the Pantheon. It is an active Dominican basilica with services, and the people at prayer are not scenery.

Dress as you would for any Roman church. Shoulders and knees covered. There is no one at the door to sell you a cover-up.

Leave something. There is no admission charge and the building is seven centuries old. The offering boxes are how it is kept.

Photograph without flash, and not during mass. The vault is the reason to come and flash does nothing for it at that height anyway.

Do not touch the tombs. Catherine of Siena and Fra Angelico are buried here, and both are places of devotion for people who did not come as tourists.

Use the piazza. The elephant, the obelisk and the flood marks are all outside, free, and available when the church is shut — which spreads the load off the nave.

It is free

There is no admission charge. This is an active Dominican basilica, not a ticketed monument.

The opening hours are not published in any usable form

The basilica's own website shows its hours only as an image file — an undated JPEG with no text — so they cannot be read by anything that is not a human looking at a picture, and there is no way to tell how old they are.

Turismo Roma publishes mass times and an explicit warning. Its entry notes that times are subject to change and that visitors should always contact the basilica.

So this page does not print visiting hours. It prints the number to ring.

What can be stated

What is free and always there

Bernini's elephant. The Pulcino della Minerva stands in the open piazza in front of the church, carrying its obelisk, at any hour and in any weather. If the door is shut, the best-known thing about the place is still outside it.

So are the Tiber flood marks cut into Maderno's façade.

Getting there

One block east of the Pantheon, in Piazza della Minerva. If you are in the Pantheon's queue you are ninety seconds away from a Gothic church with a Michelangelo in it.

Dress and conduct

Shoulders and knees covered, as in any Roman church. It is a working basilica and it closes for services.

On the ground

Allow about forty-five minutes: the nave on the axis first for the vault, then the Carafa Chapel, the Michelangelo, and the tombs of Catherine of Siena and Fra Angelico.

Ring first if the timing matters. No general visiting hours are published anywhere usable — the operator's are an undated image, and the city's listing warns that times change. The number is 333 7468785.

Avoid the mass times if you want to look rather than attend: 18:00 Monday to Saturday, and 11:00 and 18:00 on Sundays and holidays.

Late morning on a weekday is the best guess, as it is for most Roman parish churches — and it coincides with the Pantheon queue being at its worst, which is an argument for being here instead.

Bright days suit it. The star-vault is painted, not mosaic, and it needs daylight through the windows to read. On a dark afternoon it goes flat.

The piazza works at any hour. Bernini's elephant and the flood marks on the façade are outside and never close.