Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro in Rome
Adjacent to the Palazzo della Rovere in Rome, the international headquarters of the Order, the Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro is perpendicular to Via della Conciliazione, not far from St. Peter's Square.
In November 1946, in execution of a resolution of the Municipal Commission for the Toponymy of the City of Rome, the mayor, Prince Filippo Doria Pamphili, ordered the creation of the marble plaques inscribed with Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro (Knights of the Holy Sepulchre Street) in the short stretch of road that runs south from Via della Conciliazione, slightly uphill towards the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, on the western side of Palazzo della Rovere, headquarters of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
The historic Renaissance palace built by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere, in the late 1400s, had always given the adjacent streets the name of the tenant who lived there. From Cardinal Luigi Aragona, who lived there from 1513, receiving personalities of the time such as the Duke of Ferrara and Isabella d'Este, the square in front took the name for a few years of Piazza d'Aragona. From Cardinal Salviati, who lived in the palace from 1526 to 1533, the square took the name of Piazza Salviati. When the famous Cardinal Mandruzzo, Bishop of Trent, who had such a great part in starting the Catholic Reformation Council that was held in that city, took up residence there, the square in question was called Piazza di Trento. Finally, when the Palazzo became the seat of the College of Penitentiaries, the adjacent street took on the name, still preserved by a southeasterly stretch towards Porta Santo Spirito.
Thus Rome has since 1946 had a street dedicated to our Order, as does Milan, which named the street next to the Basilica of San Simpliciano after the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and Palermo, which wanted a similar dedication for the square next to the church of San Cataldo, built in 1150 and entrusted to the Order.
Leonardo Visconti di Modrone
Governatore Generale
(Spring 2021)