An unsung Michelangelo

Rome's Santa Maria degli Angeli is a church designed by Michelangelo to inhabit the remains of an ancient Roman bathhouse...you'd think it'd be more famous.

That this church was

designed by Michelangelo

is about the best thing you can say about it. He converted it from the

Great Hall of the Baths of Diocletian,

but the titular convent for some reason decided to have a later architect crank the orientation 90 degrees, turning what had been Michelangelo's nave into a weirdly long transept (the new nave was extended back by punching through the frigidarium of the ancient Baths).

The

meridian sundial

in the floor (1702) was used to set Rome's clocks for almost 150 years. Off the left transept is a small room with placards describing the baths' and church's history (and a side-door so you can pop out and take a peek at some other crumbling remains of the vast baths complex). The church opens off the grandiose Piazza della Repubblica.

Piazza della Repubblica

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