“TUTTE LE AUTORITÀ CHE SI INTERESSANO DEI MONUMENTI SONO IN SUBBUGLIO”: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE MONASTERY (1944–1947)

After the capture of Rome (September 20, 1870), the Monastery of SS. Cosma e Damiano was expropriated with the royal decree of June 25, 1875, and assigned to the Ministry of Public Education on February 17, 1879, except for the apartment of the Padre Generale of the Third Order Regular, which was incorporated in 1886. On May 11, 1877, the engineer Caraffa submitted a project for the division of the “Ex Convento dei Francescani nei S.S. Cosmo e Damiano,” replacing a project by the Ministry of Public Education. His plans of the ground floor, first level, and second level are lost. A description of the project attests that the rooms located behind the apse and above the side chapels of the basilica, together with the main staircase of the monastery, would be assigned to the parish, whereas the ministry would occupy the rooms located on the three sides of the cloister, except for some rooms left temporarily to the Curia Generalizia. However, some “lavori di separazione e di adattamento” were necessary, in particular, the construction of the southeast portico of the cloister (“passaggio coperto da costruirsi a lato della medesima chiesa, affine di raggiungere l'attuale scala principale”: it is worth recalling that the entrance to the monastery was along the Via in Miranda, and that the portico along the left-hand side of the basilica had not yet been built), and a new staircase for the ministry. On September 2, 1878, the restoration of the rooms assigned to the “Curia Generalizia dell'Ordine,” located between the wall of the Forma Urbis and the apse of the basilica, were completed and evaluated. On June 11, just before these repairs, “eseguendosi alcune riparazioni alla cucina del vicino monistero dei ss. Cosma e Damiano, furono rinvenuti nel vivo dei muri moderni … due titoli sepolcrali.”