The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva - one of the main churches of the Catholic monastic order of Dominicans. The first Christian church on the site was built on the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, who mistakenly attributed the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva - hence the name of the church. The temple is located on the Piazza della Minerva in the territory of the old city district "Field of Mars".

Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1557 is a titular church and in 1566 - bears the title "basilica minor". Over the years, the building of the church and the adjacent monastery served as the headquarters of the Dominican Order. Today, the headquarters of the Order is a Roman convent of Santa Sabina.

While many medieval churches of Rome in his time were converted in the Baroque style, which is completely concealed their original Gothic style, Santa Maria sopra Minerva is the only Roman church has kept the original Gothic appearance. Among the works of art adorning the church, you can call the statue of Michelangelo's "Cristo della Minerva", also known as the "Christ the Redeemer" (early 15th century), and the cycle of frescoes in the chapel of Filippino Lippi Carafa (late 15th century). Here you can see the tomb of the Popes Leo X and Clement VII by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, the tomb of Fra Angelico and Memorial Maria Raja Bernini.

In the era of Ancient Rome in what is now the Basilica and former monastery was located three temples - the so-called Minerva, the goddess Minerva (c. 50 BC), Izeum dedicated to the goddess Isis, the Serapeum and dedicated to the god Serapis Hellenistic. In 1665, in the garden of the monastery cloister it was discovered Egyptian obelisk. Later, next to the church was found a few obelisks, which are likely to have been brought to Rome in the 1st century and belonged to the temple of Isis. Around the 8th century temples were completely Christianized, and in the 13th century, the Dominican order founded on the basis of the Church of the monastery - the whole complex of buildings became known as the "insula sapientae" ("Island of Wisdom").

Construction of a modern gothic church began in 1280 - the Dominicans took a sample of Florentine temple of Santa Maria Novella .  Using funds donated by Pope Boniface VIII, in the 14th century were completed aisles of the temple, and in 1453 finally completed interior .  In the same year, Count Francesco Orsini financed the construction of the facade, however, he remained unfinished facade up to the year 1725 .  In the 16th century, Giuliano da Sangallo changed somewhat the area of ​​the church choir, and in 1600 by Carlo Maderno expanded apse, added a baroque facade decorations and gave its present appearance in the Renaissance style .  Interestingly, on the facade of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, you can see a few marks the 16 th and 17 th centuries, indicating the rise of water level in the floods of the Tiber .  In the years 1848-1855 Girolamo Byankedi spent the restoration of the church in which had been removed most of the Baroque elements and the white walls were covered with Neo-Gothic frescoes, which gives the building a neo-Gothic appearance . 

Before the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, you can see one of the most interesting monuments of Rome, the so-called "Pulcini della Minerva." This statue, invented by the architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed by his pupil Ercole Ferrata in 1667, depicts an elephant, which is holding the Egyptian obelisk. This is the shortest of the 11 obelisks in Rome. For a while the monument was popularly known as "porcini" ("pig"), and then was called Pulcini ("Chuck"). This is probably due to the low height of the obelisk.

Inside the church in addition to the aforementioned chapel Carafa chapel worth seeing Capranica, Aldobrandini chapel and Raymond de Penyaforta, a Catholic saint.