Page 5 - monument

CHURCH St. John the Beheaded
The church located right in front of the main door of the building is called San Giovanni Decollato. The Church, the cloister and the refectory (which is that building to the left of the facade and the photo shows the inside), are of considerable value.
It is closed to the public and is open to visits only on the last Sunday of August each year.
The purpose of the Congregation, to which this convent was entrusted in 1488 and of which Michelangelo was also a part, was unfortunately very sad: to assist and eventually convert those sentenced to death.
The condemned who repented were then buried in the cloister of the church in seven hat- ches, which still exist, on which it is written: "Domine, cum veneris iudicare, noli me con- demnare" (After the earthly condemnation, the Hope of being acquitted in the other life).
The neighborhood had always been the place for death sentences.
The ancient Romans, for this purpose, used to throw people from the Tarpeian cliff onto the Capitol.
Piazza della Consolazione with the homonymous church built precisely to give comfort to the last gaze of the condemned. Piazza della Bocca della Verita, chosen as the place for the gallows, in the last sentences until 1868.
The Congregation had the faculty to pardon a person sentenced to the year, who was di- splayed in the front row, during the procession that took place on the last Sunday of June
each year.
The photo on the left shows us the habit they wore to assist the condemned: this is exhibited in a small mu- seum in the Church.
Surely when they went out in procession to visit a con- demned man they certainly aroused a certain fear!
On the right, the last death sentence carried out in Rome. The condemned were such Monti and Tognetti: they had detonated an explosive charge killing 30 peo- ple thinking of facilitating the next invasion of the Italian troops.
Executed on November 24, 1868 right on Piazza Bocca della Verita’. The building on the right has been demoli- shed and continuing on you can see the building on the corner first, then the entrance to our house