Sant'Anselmo all'Aventino is a complex located on the Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta on the Aventine Hill in Rome's Ripa rione. The complex consists of: an ecclesiastical residential college, a university, the church, and the curial headquarters of the "Benedictine Confederation" and Abbot Primate. The complex and associated institutions are named in honor of the 12th century Benedictine monk
Saint Anselm of Canterbury.
In 1887 Pope Leo XIII formally commissioned the re-establishment of a residential college for the new Benedictine Confederation. Abbot Gaetano Bernardi purchased the land for the church and college from Count Allesandro Barbiellini Amidei. The entire "Sant'Anselmo" complex on the Aventine Hill was constructed under the control of the Belgian Benedictine
Abbot Hildebrand de Hemptinne and built by
Francesco Vespignani between 1892 and 1896 in a Lombard-Romanesque style. The church was consecrated on November 11, 1900.
In 1952 there was a renovation of the church interior by architect
Fritz Metsger. This saw the construction of elevated choir stalls for the monks in the transepts, the addition of an altar under the arch that allowed the priest to face either direction in celebrating mass, and the creation of three main mosaics by the German monk Radbodus Commandeur.
The church is well known for the emotional Gregorian chants performed by the Benedictine monks during the liturgical celebrations, besides being one of Rome's most famous churches for weddings.
