The church (also called St. Francis), which tradition says was founded by Pope Simplicius (468-483), is one of the most important sacred buildings in the city.
Built on the ruins of a Roman villa, it is the result of various renovations, carried out over a millennium.
The original building had the entrance on the opposite side from the present one; between the 12th and 13th centuries the church was enlarged, a rose window was inserted into the facade, and the present chancel was built where frescoes from the period remain.
The present-day late Gothic portal, surmounted by a double-sloping tabernacle, by sculptor Angelo da Tivoli, dates from the late 14th century, as recalled by the inscription in Gothic characters on the facade.
In 1550 Cardinal Ippolito II transformed the Benedictine monastery into the Villa d’Este. The bell tower was erected in the late 16th century.
The three-aisled interior has side chapels on the left side only; the beautiful 13th-century cosmatesque floor remains in the central one.
Of note in the right aisle is the wooden crucifix attributed to Baccio da Montelupo (1469-1523); in the left aisle is the Chapel of St. Francis with frescoes attributed to the Zuccari brothers (mid-16th cent.).
A faithful copy (commissioned in the late 18th or early 19th century) of the panel attributed to Jacopo Torriti (late 13th-early 14th century) was placed on the high altar, which was in a very poor state of preservation, partly as a result of damage caused by a lightning strike that fell on the altar in 1687.
