Chiesa di S. Maria della Strada

This is a tower, or rather, a church built like one, rising squarely on two orders above a stone base. The façade is a careful composition: a trabeated portal with modillioned pediment, then a lunette window, then a frieze of triglyphs and metopes, and finally a triangular pediment bearing the initials D.O.M. All very classical, very deliberate. Inside, the scheme shifts. Six bays of round arches rest on square piers with Corinthian capitals, their volutes picked out with floral details. The roof is a sequence of groin vaults; the whole interior is stuccoed in Baroque style. The presbytery, raised and set within a semi-decagonal space, is capped by a segmented dome. So the building plays a double game: a severe, scholarly exterior and a fluid, decorated interior. It is a church that knows its architectural history, and enjoys the contrast.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.