Ponte Sant'angelo

Ponte Sant' Angelo Methodist Church

Rome, Italy

The building was originally owned by the Friars of St. Celsus, but was bought by the Italian Free Church and dedicated as a protestant place of worship by Alessandro Gavazzi, Garibaldi’s protestant chaplain, on 18th March 1877. At that time the building housed not only the worship sanctuary, but also a theological college, junior and infant schools and a library. Whilst Gavazzi ran the theological college, Ludovico Conti served as pastor to the congregation. The schools, which occupied parts of the building since sold off, attracted 3,521 pupils in 1904, but the junior school closed in 1907 and the infant school in 1912. In September of that same year the church itself also closed. These closures were as a result of rationalizations after the union of the Italian Free church with The Italian Methodist Church in 1905.

However, in 1919 the Methodist superintendent minister, an Englishman named the Rev Edgar Braford, decided to reopen the church on this strategic site. The church was later remodeled to its present layout in 1934 under the leadership of pastor Emanuele Sbaffi. Since 1955 the services have been in English to cater for the multinational anglophone community resident in Rome and visiting tourists.