Church of San Pellegrino alla Sapienza

The Church of San Pellegrino alla Sapienza or della Sapienza (now the seat of the Orthodox parish of Sant'Anastasia Romana, under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy) is located in Siena, at the corner of Via della Sapienza and Via delle Terme.

On this site stood an old hospital, known as "della Misericordia", which was founded in the mid-13th century by Blessed Andrea Gallerani and closed in 1408. The building also included a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, mentioned as early as 1240, but which was given its present form through the intervention of 1767. Next to the church, in the rooms that now serve as the municipal library, was the old seat of the University of Siena, which gave it the name "della Sapienza". In 1816 the parish seat of the defunct Church of San Pellegrino was transferred there, demolished to create the space of the current Piazza dell'Indipendenza, thus taking the title "San Pellegrino alla Sapienza".

Since 2009, the Archdiocese of Siena has donated the church to the Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta, akin to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, as the seat of the Orthodox parish of Siena, dedicated to the Roman martyr Anastasia.
The facade and vaults of the inner hall are the result of 18th-century work. Beyond the vestibule is the only nave, decorated with white-gold Baroque stucco. Inside are six statues of Sienese saints in the wall niches, frescoes with stories of Mary in the vault are by Giuliano Traballesi and a Nativity of the Virgin by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini in the high altar.

Also worth mentioning are Blessed Andrea Gallerani attributed to the workshop of Simone Martini, Saints Peter and Paul by Bartolomeo Bulgarini and the venerated Madonna di Monteguaitano, a small 14th-century triptych in ivory and wood from the church of Maria Santissima del Rosario .

Willem Vandenameele