Church of Santa Maria sopra MinervaSanta Maria sopra Minerva

Tucked behind the Pantheon, the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva is one of Rome’s rare Gothic interiors, built in the 13th–14th cc. over the ruins of a temple to Minerva—an origin preserved in its name, sopra Minerva (over Minerva ). Long shaped by the Dominican order, it reflects a Rome of preaching and scholarship, from Michelangelo’s marble Risen Christ (1519–21) to Filippino Lippi’s Carafa Chapel frescoes (c. 1489–93), where doctrine becomes vivid narrative. The tomb of St Catherine of Siena keeps it a living place of veneration.