Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

The draw

The lantern spirals, and nothing else in Rome does. Francesco Borromini built Sant'Ivo between 1642 and 1660 inside the little courtyard of the Palazzo della Sapienza — the University of Rome from the fifteenth century until 1935 — on a palace already designed and partly built by Giacomo della Porta. He chose a plan resembling a star of David, which the reference work says would have been recognised at the time as a Star of Solomon, symbolising wisdom. Above it a polylobed dome rises to a cuspidate lantern that corkscrews, topped by a cross and carrying in wrought iron a sphere and a dove with an olive branch in its beak. Wikipedia's verdict on it is four words long: the corkscrew lantern was novel.

The friction

There is no published way in for visitors. Turismo Roma gives Mass Monday to Friday at 09.00 in the Sala della rettoria, with entry from Corso del Rinascimento 40 and Via del Teatro Valle 33, and says that on Sundays and holidays entry is allowed only from Via del Teatro Valle 33. No visiting hours of any kind are published. The interior is hard to catch open and this page will not pretend otherwise.

The tactic

Come for the roofline first and treat the inside as a bonus. The spiral lantern is visible from Corso del Rinascimento and from several angles around the block, and nobody can close that. If the interior matters to you, note which door the day you have chosen uses — Sundays and holidays are Via del Teatro Valle 33 only. It is thirty seconds from Piazza Navona, so the cost of trying is nil.

Skip it if you:

• Need to get inside. No visiting timetable is published anywhere. Build your day assuming you will see the outside.
• Do not care about architecture as geometry. The reason this building matters is its plan and its dome, not its contents.
• Are looking for a big church. It is a university chapel at the end of a courtyard, and Turismo Roma calls that courtyard little.
• Want to see the altarpiece. It is inside, and the inside is the uncertain part.

It is a university church with no visiting timetable, which means any access you get is a courtesy. If you find a door open, behave as a guest rather than a ticket-holder: quiet, brief, and out before a service.

The weekday Mass is in the rectory hall, not a tour slot. Turning up at 09.00 to look at a dome during a service is the specific thing to avoid here.

Nothing is ticketed, so no admission supports the building. An offering is the appropriate gesture if you are let in.

Photograph the lantern from the street rather than hunting for an angle inside the courtyard, which belongs to the Palazzo della Sapienza and is described nowhere as public space.

There is no published visiting timetable

This is the thinnest operational position of any attraction in this batch, and it is worth stating exactly. Turismo Roma publishes:

• Mass Monday to Friday at 09.00, celebrated in the Sala della rettoria, with entry from Corso del Rinascimento 40 and from Via del Teatro Valle 33.
• On Sundays and holidays, entry is allowed only from Via del Teatro Valle 33.

No opening hours for visitors appear on the page at all. The address is Corso del Rinascimento 40, and the church's own site is given as www.sivoallasapienza.eu — worth a look the week you travel, because it is the only place an opening is likely to be announced.

So: plan to see the exterior, and treat the interior as a bonus you may or may not get. The two doors matter if you do try — a Sunday or holiday is Via del Teatro Valle 33 only, which is on the far side of the block from the Corso del Rinascimento frontage.

Admission

No price is published, and none is expected. This is a church, not a ticketed monument.

What is free

The part that cannot be closed, which here is most of the reason to come. The dome and its spiral lantern are visible from Corso del Rinascimento and from several angles around the block, at any hour, for nothing. Borromini's single most inventive gesture is a roofline, and rooflines do not keep opening hours.

Piazza Navona is a minute away and also costs nothing, which makes a failed attempt at the interior a very cheap failure.

How long

25 minutes if you get in; ten if you are looking at the lantern from the street, which many visitors are.

A weekday, if you want any chance of the interior. The only thing Turismo Roma schedules is Mass Monday to Friday at 09.00 in the Sala della rettoria, with both doors in use. There is no published opening for visitors on any day.

On a Sunday or holiday, go to Via del Teatro Valle 33. Turismo Roma says entry is allowed only from that door then, and it is on the opposite side of the block from the main address — worth knowing before you walk the wrong frontage.

Any time at all, for the lantern. It is a roofline on Corso del Rinascimento and it is there whenever you are. Late afternoon gives the best modelling on the spiral, when low sun rakes across it and the form reads as the corkscrew it is.

Avoid 09.00 on a weekday if you are hoping to look around rather than attend: that is the Mass, and it is a service rather than an open invitation.