Was erected in 1420,
enlarged at the end of the same century and transformed
by Luigi Vanvitelli halfway through the 1700's. The
monumental steps at the entrance connect the church to
the city. The three nave interior holds many famous
works, besides the famous Caravaggio and Raphael: the
"Madonna del Parto" by Jacopo Sansovino (1521), the
decoration of the right transept by Guercino and the
tomb of Santa Monica di Isaia by Pisa. Next door is the
Angelica Library, the first public one in the city,
founded at the beginning of the 1600's and set in the
building begun by Francesco Borromini.
The Madonna dei Pellegrini is on the altar of the first
chapel on the left, it belonged to the Cavalletti
family, and can be dated to between 1603 and 1606.Two
wretched figures of pilgrims, the man with muddy feet
and the woman with a dirty bonnet on her head, kneel in
front of the Virgin and Child. The details, so crudely
real, provoke criticism and derision from the public.
It is an interpretation of the Madonna di Loreto: The
Virgin welcomes two travellers leaning on the jamb of
the door of her humble but noble
house, a symbol of the church.The light illuminating the
Virgin and Child indicates the grace that also
illuminates the two pilgrims who haven't lost the way of
faith. According to Baglione (1642), their portrayal had
caused a lively reaction, not necessarily negative as ,.r:;
is usually thought. V" _
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