The Church of the Oratory of the Opera Pia Cimini

The Oratory church is part of the complex called the Opera Pia Cimini, bequeathed by benefactor Francesco Cimini upon his death to the Municipality of Montasola in 1712.Also part of this complex are a Hospital, adjacent to the oratory, the little church on the Mount and several properties in Sabina and Rome.The story tells of this citizen of Montasola, who in the 17th century became rich by discovering golden rods in the workshop in Rome where he worked as a carpenter.

In 1681, as recorded in the records of the Good Government, Francesco Cimini granted a census of 500 scudi to the community of Montasola, and since the latter could not then restore the income, ten years later he demanded that it undertake to pay in perpetuity a Mastro di Scola for deserving students and a dowry for honest spinsters. She died in Rome on November 29, 1712, and left a will with very precise provisions for how her inheritance should be divided and administered. Montasola’s real treasure is the church of the Oratory: unique in its kind in the whole surrounding area, the chapel is rich in extraordinary marble groups and splendid paintings among which stands out on the marvelous Baroque-style altar the canvas of the Most Holy Conception, attributed if not to the painter Antonio Gherardi, to a pupil very close to the master. The special feature of this beautiful canvas is that it can be interchanged with a wooden Crucifix, by means of a still functioning winch.

The Most Holy Crucifix was the symbol of the Oratory of the Opera Pia,as is evident from all the papers relating to its activities in which this effigy is mentioned. Embellishing the altar are the two splendid marble putti, placed on the altar balusters, which popular tradition attributes to the school of Bernini. The oratory perfectly follows the canons of the Baroque style, and this was at the explicit request of the commissioner Francesco Cimini, who was inspired by the Roman churches he used to attend in Rome at that time, in Via dell’Arco della Ciambella where the workshop in which he worked was located.In its delicacy, amid marble and paintings, a balustrade carved in the fine pink Cottanello marble also reappears here, originally from the church of Santa Maria Morella, later divided into three parts and shared with the parish church of Saints Peter and Thomas, the Oratory and Santa Maria Morella.
The Oratory shares with the adjacent church of St. Michael the Archangel the Bell Tower and two of the four bells.