At the end of the XIV century a hospice and a church dedicated to San Nicola dei Catalani was created for them, which in the following century was put in the care of the Fraternity of Santa Maria di Monserrato, established in 1495, by a pope from the area of Valencia, Alexander VI. And it was this organization that commissioned the construction of a new church for the Catalonians and Aragonese, but also of a hospital, in which pilgrims from that area were looked after. At this time another church also existed, the San Girolamo (for the Castilians), at Piazza Navona. At the beginning of the XIX century both churches were combined. The property of the latter, was in part put into the church at via di Monserrato, which in 1875 became a national church of the Spaniards. Its dedication (the full name is: Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli) is a reference to the Black Virgin – a sculpture found in a monastery on the mountain of Montserrat near Barcelona,  which was especially venerated by Catalonians.

The design of the church was entrusted to Antonio de Sangallo (the Younger). However, the façade, which  even at first glance causes anxiety due to its inconsistency, was created in two stages. Its lower part was built in 1582 by Francesco da Volterra, while the upper was not completed until 1929. Above the enterance we will notice the Madonna with Child in a rocky grotto and a metal saw lying next to them. This rather bizarre composition is a direct reference to the name of the mountain, Mont Serrat, which in Catalonian means “sawn mountain”.

The single-nave interior of the church strikes with its simplicity and discipline, which is further underlined by the XIX-century ornamental decoration. Three identical chapels open up on each side, in which we can find, sometimes very interesting works of art from the previous centuries, some of which come from the aforementioned Church of San Girolamo.

  Looking on from the enterance:

• The first chapel on the right is devoted to Didacus of Alcalà (San Diego d’Alcala) – a Spanish Franciscan who came to Rome in the Jubilee Year of 1450. When the plague erupted in the city, Diego organized aid for the ill, nursed the dying and reportedly performed miracles, anointing their bodies with oil from the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. The most exquisite decoration of the chapel is a painting of Annibale Carracci depicting the miraculous skills of the monk. The chapel also houses (on the right), the earthly remains of two popes from the Borgia family, from the Pyrenean Peninsula – Callixtus III and Alexander VI. They were unable to find their final resting place in the Vatican Basilica, or another equally prestigious location. Their bodies were transported from the Vatican crypts at the beginning of the XVII century and remained in the sacristy here for nearly three centuries, until 1881, when a joint tombstone was founded for them, while their graves were adorned with modest busts. Until recently the remains of the Spanish King Alfonso XII, who after Spain was proclaimed a Republic emigrated, were also located here. He died in Rome in 1941 and only in 1980, his coffin was transferred to El Escorial near Madrid. There is a modest tombstone in the chapel which reminds us of this fact, located under the tombstone of the two popes.

The presbytery in the shape of a square is topped off with a semi-circular apse. It is adorned with a The Crucifixion painted by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, a rather popular XVI-century Roman mannerist.

•     Third chapel on the left – its main decoration is the statue of St. James the Elder, the apostle of Spain, and a saint who was particularly venerated in that country. It was completed by the outstanding sculptor of late Renaissance, Jacopo Sansovino (1518). On both sides, there are (in the lower part) early-Renaissance sarcophaguses sculpted by Andrea Bregno: on the left Bishop Alfons da Paradinas (1485), on the right Juan de Fuensalida (1498), two collaborators of Pope Alexander VI.
•     Second chapel on the left is dedicated to Our Lady of Montserrat, whose wooden sculpture (contemporary copy of the one from Montserrat) is visible in the richly decorated altar.
•     First chapel on the left hides within a beautiful marble group The Madonna with Child and St. Anne, sculpted in 1544 by Tommaso Boscoli.

And finally a small surprise: in the portico of the adjacent to the church refractory, we will find an interesting funerary monument, or more appropriately a bust from 1621, of a lawyer, Pedro Montoya buried within, created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (currently the enterance to the room is found at via Giulia).

Exiting onto the narrow via di Monserrato, it is worth taking another look at the façade and transport ourselves back in time when this street was a busy avenue leading to St. Peter’s Basilica (San Pietro in Vaticano), full of pilgrims, beggars and merchants. Today it is peaceful and quiet and in not at all reminiscent of the past.