152.

Chiesa e Monastero di S. Lorenzo in Panisperna delle Suore Francescane Osservanti

Via Panisperna, which cuts diagonally across this view, was one of the new streets struck through the empty part of the city in the late 1580s under Sixtus V Peretti (1585-1590). It connected S. Maria Maggiore (3) Plate 122, to the Column of Trajan, Plate 38, near Piazza Venezia. The main gate (1) of the complex makes an odd angle (35°) which infact the whole monastic complex of S. Lorenzo (2) makes with the street argues for its having been there before Via Panisperna was cut through. This is indeed the case: S. Lorenzo was an early Christian church, many times restored and largely redone in the 1570s. The 1551 Bufalini map shows that originally the church was approached by a street coming in from the left and parallel to the church facade. By Nolli's time that street had disappeared. The Bufalini map indicates the name of the church as S. Laurentii palipernae, thus providing the source, but not the meaning of the street name. The houses on the descent toward S. Maria Maggiore date from after the street's implementation, while the Palazzo Cimarra (4) despite its 18th century exterior, must date before because it has the same orientation as S. Lorenzo.