Christuskirche, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome

The Christuskirche is at Via Sicilia 70, in the Ludovisi rione, and is the church of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Rome, the German-speaking community that is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy. It has no ticket office and is not a museum: you walk in freely during the Sunday service at 10, in German with the sermon translated into Italian, and on the second Sunday of the month at 17, when the service is in Italian and is preceded at 16:30 by an organ concert.

Outside these appointments, opening hours for those who only want to look at the interior are not published. The Roma Capitale tourism portal refers directly to the community's contacts, which has its administrative office a few meters farther on, at Via Toscana 7. The number to call is 06 4817519. It's the surest way to know if on a weekday the door will be open, before climbing up to Via Sicilia.

Data checked on September 29, 2026 on the Rome community page published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy, on the Roma Capitale tourism portal, on the Holy See's website for the popes' visits and on the online exhibition of the Bibliotheca Hertziana devoted to the building's centenary. The church was built between 1911 and 1922 to a design by Franz Schwechten, the architect who in Berlin signed the Emperor Wilhelm Memorial Church, and in a little over 30 years it has received three popes.

In brief: address, hours, ticket

• Address: Via Sicilia 70, 00187 Rome, Ludovisi rione. The community's office is at Via Toscana 7.
• Operator: Evangelical Lutheran Community of Rome, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy.
• How to get in: freely during services. Openings for simple visits are not published, so it's best to phone first.
• Price: no ticket. The service is open to everyone.
• Services: every Sunday at 10 in German with the sermon translated into Italian. Second Sunday of the month at 17 in Italian, with an organ concert at 16:30.
• Contacts: telephone 06 4817519, email roma@chiesaluterana.it.
• How to get there: on foot from Piazza Barberini, metro A, going up Via Veneto toward Porta Pinciana.

Where it is and what you actually see

Via Sicilia is a street in the Ludovisi, the neighborhood built in the late 1800s on the grounds of the ancient villa of the Ludovisi princes, between Via Veneto and the Aurelian Walls. The church occupies the corner with Via Toscana, among middle-class buildings and offices. Anyone arriving from Porta Pinciana sees it appear suddenly, because the facade of squared stone looks like nothing else in the area.

The facade is gabled, faced with squared stones, squeezed between two square-plan bell towers. At the center opens a portico with a large round arch covered by a barrel vault. Above, three marble statues represent Christ, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Higher up, the Roma Capitale tourism portal counts seven splayed round-arched windows. From far away it looks like a Rhenish Romanesque church, placed by mistake between two Umbertine buildings.

Inside the effect changes at once. The hall is divided into three naves with matronea, that is, the upper galleries, and the vaults are covered with gilded mosaics with plant and geometric motifs. In the semi-dome of the apse there is a Christ Pantocrator, the enthroned Christ giving a blessing. The pulpit is marble decorated in bas-relief, the central altar bears a bronze crucifix, the ambo is wood.

On the choir loft, that is, the musicians' gallery, stands the Steinmeyer organ, opus 1515, built in 1930. According to the sources it has electric action, 35 stops, two keyboards of 61 notes and a pedalboard of 30. It is the instrument heard in the concerts of the second Sunday of the month, and anyone interested in organ music has here a concrete reason to choose that date over any other Sunday.

What you don't see, but is there underneath, is a Roman road. During the foundation work the workers found the paving of an ancient road about four meters wide, at a depth of 2.40 meters. The fact appears both on the Roma Capitale portal and in the encyclopedia entry on the church. There is nothing to visit, the paving is not exposed, but it helps to understand that even the Ludovisi, a modern neighborhood, rests on much older layers.

On Sunday morning you can recognize the church by the movement on the sidewalk too. Families, older people, a few diplomats, children: the community arrives on foot or by public transport, and before and after the service the portico becomes a meeting place. On weekdays, with the door closed, the facade stays silent instead, and people driving along Via Sicilia often don't even notice what it is.

The community's office, with the offices and the secretariat, is instead at Via Toscana 7, on the other side of the block. That's where they answer the phone at 06 4817519 and where you can ask for information on visits, concerts and initiatives. The secretariat's hours are not published on the Lutheran Church in Italy page, so it's best to try in the morning on weekdays and, if nobody answers, to write to the email address.

A curiosity about the Christuskirche, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome

The church you see is not the one the community had commissioned. In 1907 the project had been entrusted to the architect Richard Schultze, for a narrow lot on Via Toscana bought in 1899. According to the Bibliotheca Hertziana's reconstruction, it was Emperor Wilhelm II who judged that design not representative enough, and had Franz Schwechten, the court architect, called in 1910 in place of the first designer.

Schwechten did not limit himself to redesigning the facades. He rotated the entire building by 90 degrees, turned a modest church into a much larger three-nave hall and moved the monumental front onto Via Sicilia. That is why the monumental facade looks onto Via Sicilia and not onto Via Toscana, where the first lot had planned it. The Kaiser's choice, in short, can still be read in the plan.

Another detail few people notice concerns the baptismal font. It comes from the chapel of the Prussian legation on the Capitoline Hill and has a longer history than the church. The clay model is by Bertel Thorvaldsen, the Danish sculptor who lived a long time in Rome, and dates to 1826-1827. The basin was designed by Michael Knapp and cast in bronze by Wilhelm Hopfgarten. It is the oldest object inside the building.

The name too has its logic. Christuskirche, in German, simply means church of Christ, and it is a common dedication among German-speaking evangelical churches. In Rome, though, the facade adds a local meaning: next to Christ appear Peter and Paul, the two apostles who are patrons of the city, venerated for centuries in the great Catholic basilicas. It is a way of presenting itself to Rome by speaking the city's language.

One thing nobody tells you about the Christuskirche, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome

The community does not live on German funding. According to a report by the German Catholic broadcaster Domradio published for the centenary, it is sustained by the Italian State's 8 per mille and by the voluntary contributions of its members, with no funds coming from Germany. It's a detail that changes how you read the place. The church was born as a project of the German empire, today it is an Italian Protestant community in every respect, financed by Italian taxpayers.

The same report estimated the members at about 500, half of them diplomats and business people who came from German-speaking countries. A historical profile from the Protestant agency NEV in 2017 spoke instead of about 350 members. The sources don't agree, and the difference probably depends on the year and on what is counted. In both cases it is a small community, which however has a dense social life.

Among the initiatives cited by Domradio are the Advent bazaar, a tradition that has lasted for decades, a breakfast for poor people and support projects for African migrants. Anyone who imagines the Lutheran church on Via Sicilia as a closed expat club is wrong. It is a real parish, with activities during the week, and the services are the moment when you see it for what it is.

The 8 per mille mechanism also explains why the community is so rooted in Italian life. Anyone who files a tax return in Italy can allocate that share to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy, of which the Rome community is part. A church built with donations collected all over Germany, as Domradio recalls, therefore lives today on the choices of Italian taxpayers, Lutheran and not.

From the Capitoline Hill to Via Sicilia: how was the Lutheran community of Rome born?

The community is much older than the building. According to the NEV agency's historical profile, the first evangelical service was held on November 9, 1817 in the home of the Prussian diplomat Christian von Bunsen, in Piazza dell'Aracoeli, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. In June 1819 Pastor Heinrich Schneider arrived, the first permanent evangelical minister in the city, sent by King Frederick William III of Prussia.

From 1823 the services moved to a chapel on the ground floor of Palazzo Caffarelli, on the Capitoline Hill, seat of the Prussian legation. They stayed there for about 100 years. Today Palazzo Caffarelli is part of the complex of the Capitoline Museums, next to the Palazzo dei Conservatori, and little recalls that Protestant presence under the pope's eyes.

From 1890 fundraising for a real church began in Germany. In 1894 a German Evangelical Committee for Rome was born, in 1899 the land between Via Toscana and Via Sicilia was bought, in August 1909 a royal decree of Victor Emmanuel III authorized the construction. The first stone was laid on June 2, 1911. Then came the war.

Between 1914 and 1918 the building site stopped. In 1915 the Italian State expropriated German properties in Rome, Palazzo Caffarelli included, and the community lost its historic chapel. The bronze bells, according to NEV, were melted down during the conflict and remade for the inauguration. The church was consecrated on November 5, 1922, four years after the end of the war, in an Italy that had meanwhile changed completely.

The context helps to understand the scale of the change. In the Rome of the popes, before 1870, Protestant worship was allowed only in private form, inside the chapels of foreign diplomatic missions like the Prussian one at Palazzo Caffarelli. An evangelical church with a facade on the street, bell towers and a monumental portal would have been unthinkable. The Christuskirche was therefore born from another Rome, capital of the Kingdom of Italy, where non-Catholic worship was by then tolerated by law.

The advice I give you for visiting the Christuskirche, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome

Go on the second Sunday of the month in the afternoon. At 16:30 there is the organ concert, at 17 the service in Italian. In a single afternoon you see the lit interior, hear the Steinmeyer really played and follow a Lutheran liturgy in your own language, without having to understand German. It is the most complete and most respectful way to get to know the church, and it is free.

Arrive a few minutes early and sit where there is room, without wandering through the naves once the service has begun. Photographs during the celebration are not the point. The mosaics and the apse are better looked at before the start or right after, asking politely if you can stay a few minutes. The organ concert, instead, is the moment when listening matters more than seeing.

If Sunday doesn't work, phone during the week at 06 4817519 and ask if the church will be open at a specific time. The most common mistake is turning up on a weekday afternoon convinced you'll find it wide open like a Catholic basilica in the center. It doesn't work that way. It is a community church, and outside services the door can stay closed.

Anyone coming from a Catholic background finds many things familiar and a few clear differences. The structure alternates Bible readings, prayers, hymns of the congregation and the sermon, which in the Lutheran tradition has a central weight and can last longer than you expect. For the Lord's Supper, with bread and wine, frequency and procedures must be asked of the community, because they are not given on the official page.

Music counts enormously. The singing of the faithful, supported by the organ, has been an essential part of the Lutheran liturgy since the days of the Reformation, and on Via Sicilia you hear it supported by an organ installed in 1930. Anyone who comes in on the second Sunday of the month has the advantage of the 16:30 concert, which introduces the service and lets you hear the instrument alone, without the liturgy.

For those who don't speak German the 10 service remains easy to follow thanks to the Italian translation of the sermon. The advice is to pick up a hymn booklet at the entrance, if offered, and follow the gestures of the congregation without worrying about making mistakes. Nobody asks guests to declare their denomination, and the atmosphere of a small community makes the welcome simple and direct.

How much does it cost and do you need to book?

It costs nothing and you don't book. You enter the services freely, and the organ concert of the second Sunday of the month too, according to the page of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy, precedes the service without any ticket being indicated. There are no official tickets sold by online platforms, and be wary of anyone offering skip-the-line entry to a place that has no line.

The official channel is the community itself. The Rome page on the website of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy gives addresses, telephone and service times. The community also has its own website in German and Italian, ev-luth-gemeinde-rom.org, and for visits outside service hours the reference remains the office telephone or the email address roma@chiesaluterana.it given by the Roma Capitale tourism portal.

The church has also been used by Roman music institutions. The Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti, for example, lists it among its venues, but the page devoted to this venue announces no scheduled events. To know if in a given period there are special concerts, beyond the monthly organ ones, it's best to ask the community instead of relying on old calendars found online.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely cited

Everyone remembers that three popes have come in here. Few remember that the first visit, that of John Paul II on December 11, 1983, fell in the year of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth. It was not a coincidence of the calendar. The pope took part in an ecumenical service in a Lutheran church just as the Protestant world was celebrating its reformer, and the English encyclopedia entry records it as the first papal visit ever to a Lutheran church.

The Domradio report for the centenary describes it a little differently, as the first visit by a pope to an evangelical church since the Reformation. The two formulas don't contradict each other, but they show how much that afternoon in 1983 has become a reference point for dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. Via Sicilia, a street of offices and middle-class buildings, has since been one of the symbolic places of ecumenism in Rome.

On March 14, 2010 Benedict XVI arrived on the fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, and was welcomed by Pastor Kruse. The text published by the Holy See shows a homily built on the parable of the grain of wheat that dies to bear fruit. The pope spoke of the cross as a gift of self, of following Christ lived inside a community, of the unity already reached among the churches and of the pain over the divisions that remain.

On November 15, 2015 Pope Francis changed the format. First he answered the questions of three members of the community, then he gave a homily, and the Holy See also published the text of the prepared address. The most delicate subject was the one raised by a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic, about the possibility for spouses of different denominations to take part together in the Lord's Supper. It is the question that many mixed couples in Rome still ask.

Put in sequence, the three visits tell of 30 years of ecumenical dialogue in three different styles. A common prayer in 1983, a theological homily in 2010, a conversation with the faithful in 2015. For anyone walking into Via Sicilia today, knowing what happened under those vaults changes how you look at the hall, which from the church of a foreign minority has become a place in Roman religious history.

The right photo to take at the Christuskirche, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome

The facade is photographed from the opposite sidewalk of Via Sicilia, shifted a bit toward Via Toscana, so that the two bell towers fit whole in the frame without distorting too much. The street is narrow and parked cars are a constant, so a moderate wide-angle lens and a little patience help. The best light is the morning light, when the stone takes on a warm color.

The detail worth the shot is the group of three marble statues above the portico, with Christ in the center between Peter and Paul. Up close, under the arch, the barrel vault of the portico also reads well. Anyone with a zoom can isolate the splayed windows of the upper part, which give the facade a rhythm very different from that of the Baroque churches of the center.

Inside, photographs must be asked for. During the service you don't shoot, out of respect. Before or after, if the community allows it, the right photo is from the back of the central nave toward the apse, with the gilded Pantocrator high up and the mosaic vaults above the nave, without flash. Flash flattens the gold and disturbs those who pray.

For an image that tells the context, instead, it's best to widen out. From the intersection with Via Toscana the stone facade appears squeezed among the plastered buildings of the Ludovisi, with balconies, shutters and parked cars. It is the least elegant photo but the most honest, because it shows how foreign this church is to the neighborhood around it, and how much the neighborhood, after a century, has ended up absorbing it.

How do you get there from the center of Rome?

The most convenient metro stop is Barberini, on line A. Having come out on Piazza Barberini, with the Triton Fountain behind you, you go up all of Via Veneto almost to Porta Pinciana and then bend right, into the streets of the Ludovisi, to Via Sicilia. It is a continuous but gentle climb, among hotels, embassies and outdoor tables.

Anyone arriving from Villa Borghese has the most pleasant route. You leave the villa at Porta Pinciana, cross the opening in the Aurelian Walls and enter the Ludovisi. From the opposite side you can also arrive from Via XX Settembre and from Porta Pia, passing through the straight streets of the neighborhood, which bear the names of Italian regions.

The bus lines serving the area often change route and stops. For the exact trip the reference is the route planner of ATAC, Rome's public transport company, with Via Sicilia 70 as the arrival address. By car, street parking is difficult, and public transport remains the simplest choice even on Sunday morning.

Anyone arriving from Termini station can take metro A toward Battistini and get off after two stops, at Barberini. Those who prefer to walk can go up from Termini toward Via XX Settembre and then cross the straight streets of the neighborhood to Via Sicilia, with a map in hand. It is longer, but you pass by the ministries and the buildings of the capital Rome of the late 1800s.

Some important events that happened here in history

On June 2, 1911 the first stone is laid. On November 5, 1922 the church is consecrated, after the interruption of the war and the expropriations of 1915. In 1930 the Steinmeyer organ arrives, and in the same year, according to the Bibliotheca Hertziana, the old parish house is rented to the German Archaeological Institute. These are the years when Rome's German community rebuilds its institutions after the rupture of the conflict.

On December 11, 1983 John Paul II takes part in an ecumenical service, on the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth. On March 14, 2010, Laetare Sunday, Benedict XVI visits the community and preaches on the parable of the grain of wheat from the Gospel of John, welcomed by Pastor Jens-Martin Kruse. On November 15, 2015 Pope Francis answers the questions of the faithful and then gives a homily.

In 1915, with the expropriation of German properties, the community loses the chapel of Palazzo Caffarelli, where services had been held since 1823. On January 14, 2015 the church hosts the funeral of Anita Ekberg, 10 months before Pope Francis's visit. In June 2022 the community celebrates its centenary, and the Bibliotheca Hertziana devotes an online exhibition to the building, still available.

The celebration of the 100 years was held on Sunday, June 26, 2022, a few months before the exact anniversary of the consecration on November 5. According to Domradio, Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Vatican official responsible for Christian unity, and Annette Kurschus, then president of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, took part in the celebration, and the music was entrusted to a Bach cantata. A Catholic presence so high at a Lutheran celebration tells well how far things have come since 1983.

The online exhibition of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, published for the anniversary, is the best way to prepare the visit from home. It reconstructs the birth of the community, Schultze's first project, Schwechten's intervention wanted by the Kaiser, the long interruption of the war, the artists of the mosaics and the furnishings. Among them is also Gotthold Riegelmann, who designed the liturgical elements. Anyone who consults it first arrives on Via Sicilia already knowing where to look.

The centenary also brought attention back to today's community. The Domradio report insisted on the daily life of the parish, on the Advent bazaar and on the social projects, more than on the building. It is a useful reading for the visitor: the Christuskirche is not a piece of Wilhelmine Germany preserved under glass, but a working church, with people who attend it every week.

Who passed through the Christuskirche, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome

The best-known names are those of the three popes. John Paul II in 1983, Benedict XVI in 2010, Francis in 2015. For the German pope the visit to the German-speaking Lutheran community had a particular meaning, on a Sunday of Lent. Francis chose instead the form of dialogue, answering questions put directly by members of the community, adults and children.

In 2015, according to the text published by the Holy See, the questions came from three people. Julius, a boy of nine, asked the pope what he liked about his role. Anke de Bernardinis, married to an Italian Catholic, raised the theme of common participation in the Lord's Supper between spouses of different denominations. Gertrud Wiedmer, the community's treasurer, asked how to face poverty without building walls.

Among the pastors are Jens-Martin Kruse, who welcomed Benedict XVI in 2010 and was still pastor in 2017 according to NEV, and Michael Jonas, named as pastor by the Lutheran Church in Italy page. Among the people who passed through here for the last time is the Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, the star of the scene in the Trevi Fountain, whose funeral was held here on January 14, 2015.

Going back in time, the list gets longer. Christian von Bunsen, the Prussian diplomat in whose house at the Aracoeli the first evangelical service was held in 1817. Heinrich Schneider, the first pastor, who arrived in 1819. And of course Franz Schwechten, who designed the building. Wilhelm II wanted him, but a visit by him to the finished church is not confirmed by an official source, since it was consecrated when the German empire no longer existed.

Romanesque or Byzantine: how do you read the architecture?

The sources don't agree on the label. The English encyclopedia entry speaks of Neo-Romanesque style, NEV's historical profile of Neo-Byzantine style. Both are right, because Schwechten mixed the two languages. The exterior, with the exposed stone, the gabled facade and the square bell towers, looks to the Romanesque of the Rhenish churches. The interior, with the gold mosaics and the Christ in the apse, looks to Ravenna and Byzantium.

It was a typical choice of official German architecture of the Wilhelmine period. Schwechten himself had designed in Berlin the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, the memorial church left standing half-ruined after the bombings of the Second World War. In Rome the same grammar, transplanted into an Umbertine neighborhood, produces a building that resembles neither the Catholic churches nearby nor the city's other Protestant churches.

The project also contained something that was never carried out. From 1913 a Reformation memorial hall in the vestibule was planned, with 17 medallions painted in the vault, portraits of reformers and Protestant rulers. The Bibliotheca Hertziana documents the drawings, but the cycle was not executed. Today the atrium is plain, and the whole emphasis is concentrated inside, on the gold of the mosaics and on the apse.

The second rarely cited fact concerns the mosaics. They are not the work of Roman craftsmen but of the Berlin firm Puhl & Wagner, which according to the Bibliotheca Hertziana produced about 414 square meters of surface with the indirect method, that is, assembling the tesserae in the workshop on paper and then transferring them to the wall. The design of the apse and the triumphal arch is by Ernst Pfannschmidt, the ornamental bands by Friedrich Schwarting, who died in 1918.

The Christuskirche in Protestant and German-speaking Rome: what is around it?

Rome has few historic Protestant churches, and each tells of a different community. The Waldensian Evangelical Church in Piazza Cavour is the temple of the oldest Italian Protestant church. The Methodist Evangelical Church represents another tradition, in close dialogue with the Waldensians. Saint Paul's Within the Walls, on Via Nazionale, is the American Episcopal church.

Among these, the Christuskirche is the only one born as a direct project of a foreign empire, and it shows. It is also the most international in the makeup of its community, tied to German-speaking diplomats and families. A route among these churches, in a single day, shows four different ways of being Protestant in Rome, in a city where for centuries evangelical worship was confined to embassy chapels.

The route ideally ends at the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome, near the Pyramid of Cestius, where for centuries Protestants, Orthodox and nonbelievers who died in the city have been buried. Among the tombs are many German names. It is the place that tells the less official side of the Protestant presence in Rome, that of individuals, artists and travelers.

The differences among these churches are not only historical. Lutherans, Waldensians and Methodists have different theological traditions, liturgies and forms of government, even though in Italy they have cooperated for decades. For the visitor the simplest thing is to attend a service in each, perhaps on different Sundays, and notice the differences in music, space and sermon. It is a way of getting to know Rome that few itineraries offer.

The church is not an isolated case. Rome has a network of German-language institutions worth knowing. Farther away, in the Nomentano district, is Villa Massimo, the German Academy, which hosts artists in residence. The Bibliotheca Hertziana, the German institute of art history that curated the online exhibition on the church's centenary, works on the city and its art.

The Ludovisi, born on the gardens of the ancient villa of the Ludovisi princes, was parceled out in the last quarter of the 1800s, and its streets bear the names of regions: Sicilia, Toscana, Sardegna, Lombardia, Piemonte. Today it is a neighborhood of hotels, embassies and offices, with few neighborhood shops. On Sunday morning, when traffic drops, you better understand how it was conceived, with its orderly buildings and all-alike facades.

At the top of the Spanish Steps, in front of Trinità dei Monti, the Sallustiano Obelisk still bears the name of the ancient Gardens of Sallust, the green zone that in Roman times occupied the valley between the Pincio and the Quirinal. Before the modern neighborhood this whole area was a system of villas and gardens, and the Ludovisi is its building heir.

There is then a thread linking the church to archaeology. In 1930, according to the Bibliotheca Hertziana, the old parish house was rented to the German Archaeological Institute, one of the great foreign research institutes in Rome. And under the church, as we have seen, the works had already brought to light the paving of an ancient road. In the Ludovisi the 20th century and the Roman age live together a few meters deep.

When is it closed, what is access like and what not to expect?

Outside service times the church may be closed, and the community publishes no opening hours for visits. So don't expect an always-open church, a custodian at the entrance or explanatory panels for tourists. It is a parish church in use, not a monument turned into a museum, and the visit must be organized knowing that, with a phone call beforehand.

Don't expect a bare church either. It's a widespread prejudice that Protestant churches are necessarily naked and white, and here it is disproved by the gold of the vaults. Anyone arriving prepared for a severe hall finds instead dense mosaics, a gilded apse and a big organ. Lutheran sobriety shows, if anywhere, in the liturgy, in the centrality of the sermon and of music, not in the walls.

During services the behavior is that of any religious celebration. You go in quietly, stay seated until the end or leave discreetly, the phone stays in your pocket. Anyone who is not Lutheran is welcome as a guest. For the Lord's Supper, that is, communion, the community's rules on access for members of other denominations should be asked directly of the pastor.

For holidays, such as Christmas, Easter or the Reformation festival in late October, hours may change and special celebrations are often added. The detailed calendar is not published on the Lutheran Church in Italy page, which gives only the ordinary hours. Before organizing a visit in those periods it's best to call the office on Via Toscana, which can give updated dates and times.

Information on accessibility for people with motor disabilities is not published by the operator. The Roma Capitale tourism portal does not give it and neither does the community page. Anyone who needs to know if there are steps at the entrance, ramps or reserved seats must ask the community directly, at 06 4817519, before setting out. It's the only reliable answer.

With children the church is a more suitable place than you'd think. The community also includes families, and in 2015 one of the questions to Pope Francis came from a nine-year-old boy. At the service it's best to sit toward the back, so you can leave without disturbing if the little ones get tired. Villa Borghese, right beyond the walls, then offers space to run after an hour of silence.

Eating near Via Sicilia and Via Veneto

Via Veneto is one of the streets of Rome where it is easiest to eat badly and pay a lot. The outdoor tables, the photos from Fellini's film in the window, the barker who stops you on the sidewalk and the laminated menu in six languages are the classic signs of a place that lives off passersby and not regular customers. Romans come here for work and eat elsewhere.

Be wary too of menus with photographed dishes, of items with no price or with the notation s.q. on fish, meaning according to quantity, and of places open all day with no break in the kitchen. Another warning sign is the menu displayed outside being different from the one they bring to your table. It's not snobbery: these are places designed for people who pass once and don't come back.

The side streets of the Ludovisi and of the nearby Salario district, frequented by office workers and residents, generally offer a more honest ratio of quality to price, especially at lunch on weekdays. On Sunday many neighborhood places are closed. To choose without leaving it to chance, there is the list of addresses on Google Maps kept by the editorial team.

What to combine in a day

The most natural combination is with Villa Borghese. After the morning service you exit at Porta Pinciana and enter the park. Those who have booked can visit the Galleria Borghese and the Secret Gardens, those who prefer something quieter the Pietro Canonica Museum. Then you go down to the Pincio for the view over the city.

Those who prefer ancient art go down instead toward Piazza Barberini and visit Palazzo Barberini, the national gallery of ancient art, or book the Barberini Mithraeum, which can be visited only by reservation. From there, in a few minutes, you reach the Quattro Fontane and Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.

Another possibility is a Protestant-themed route. After the Italian service on the second Sunday you can go back to the center to see the Keats-Shelley House in Piazza di Spagna, tied to Keats and Shelley, both buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery, and the next day go up to the Non-Catholic Cemetery. Or, for those who like walls, walk the stretch of the Aurelian Walls between Porta Pinciana and Porta Pia.

On the opposite side, going down toward Via XX Settembre and the station, you reach on foot Piazza della Repubblica with the Fountain of the Naiads, the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli carved by Michelangelo out of the Baths of Diocletian. It's a useful pairing for those with a train in the afternoon who want to end the day near Termini.

Film lovers can instead stay in the villa and reach the Casa del Cinema at Villa Borghese, just past Porta Pinciana, which organizes screenings and series. It is the natural complement to a day between Via Veneto and Via Sicilia, where the memory of La Dolce Vita and that of the Lutheran community cross through the name of Anita Ekberg, and where the city of the 1960s overlaps with that of the early 1900s.

Via Veneto or Via Sicilia: where is it really worth stopping?

In our judgment Via Veneto is overrated. It lives on the memory of La Dolce Vita, the paparazzi and the cafes of the 1960s, but today it is a street of hotels and offices, with few reasons to stop for long. The Christuskirche, a few streets farther on, is ignored by most passersby, and yet it has a much denser and better documented history than any table on the famous street.

The cinema on Via Veneto still deserves a thought. Anyone following the traces of Rome in the movies finds here the places of La Dolce Vita, and the link with the Christuskirche goes precisely through Anita Ekberg. But the street works better as a walk toward the villa than as a destination. The advice is to cross it without stopping and spend your time in the side streets.

Anyone short on time can do a brief and complete tour: Piazza Barberini, Via Veneto on foot, the facade of the Christuskirche on Via Sicilia, Porta Pinciana and the entrance to the villa. Barely an hour, all free, and you see a piece of the city born between the 1800s and 1900s that is often missing from the classic itineraries of the historic center, focused on squares and basilicas.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Christuskirche in Rome?

At Via Sicilia 70, in the Ludovisi rione, at the corner with Via Toscana, where at number 7 the community's office is. It is the church of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Rome, German-speaking, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy. The area is the upper part of Via Veneto, near Porta Pinciana and the entrance to Villa Borghese, reachable on foot from the Barberini stop of metro A.

Do you pay to get in?

No. The church has no ticket and you enter the services freely. Even the organ concert at 16:30 on the second Sunday of the month, which precedes the Italian service at 17, is not listed as paid on the community's official page. No official paid visits are listed for this place, and offers of skip-the-line entry to the church make no sense.

What time are the services and in what language?

Every Sunday at 10 the service is celebrated in German, with the sermon translated into Italian. On the second Sunday of the month there is also a service in Italian at 17, preceded by an organ concert at 16:30. The times are published on the Rome community page of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy website. For holidays and any changes it's best to phone 06 4817519.

Can you visit the church on a weekday?

Opening hours for visits outside services are not published, and the Roma Capitale tourism portal refers to the community's contacts. The advice is to phone first at 06 4817519 or write to roma@chiesaluterana.it, giving the day and time you would like to come by. Showing up unannounced on a weekday afternoon means risking finding the door closed.

Who designed it and when was it built?

The design is by Franz Schwechten, court architect of Emperor Wilhelm II and author of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Berlin. The first stone was laid on June 2, 1911, work stopped during the First World War and the church was consecrated on November 5, 1922. The first design, later abandoned, was by the architect Richard Schultze, commissioned in 1907.

Which popes have visited the Christuskirche?

Three. John Paul II on December 11, 1983, for an ecumenical service on the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth. Benedict XVI on March 14, 2010, Laetare Sunday, with a homily on the parable of the grain of wheat. Francis on November 15, 2015, when he answered the questions of three members of the community and then gave a homily. The texts of the last two visits are published on the Holy See's website.

Can someone who doesn't speak German take part in the service?

Yes. At the Sunday service at 10 the sermon is translated into Italian, and on the second Sunday of the month the 17 service is entirely in Italian. The community welcomes guests of other denominations. Anyone who is not Lutheran and wants to know if they can take part in the Lord's Supper does well to ask the pastor directly, before the service, with discretion.

What do you see inside?

A hall of three naves with matronea, vaults covered by about 414 square meters of gilded mosaics made by the Berlin firm Puhl & Wagner, a Christ Pantocrator in the semi-dome of the apse, a marble pulpit with bas-reliefs and the 1930 Steinmeyer organ with 35 stops. There is also a baptismal font modeled on Bertel Thorvaldsen, brought from the chapel of the Prussian legation on the Capitoline Hill.

Is there a link between the church and Anita Ekberg?

Yes. The Swedish actress, who became famous all over the world for the Trevi Fountain scene in La Dolce Vita, had her funeral at the Christuskirche on January 14, 2015, according to the English encyclopedia entry on the church. Anyone following the film's traces between Via Veneto and Trevi finds here a lesser-known chapter of the story, far from the glitter of the street.

Who wrote this and from which sources

The text comes from the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, the Rome-based company that designs itineraries, visits and cultural events across Rome and Lazio. Fees, hours and booking procedures given here come from the official sources cited in the text as of the date indicated at the top: service times and contacts from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy, history from the Bibliotheca Hertziana and the NEV agency, papal visits from the Holy See. Tell us what you find changed.

Anyone organizing an outing with several people in a church in use has to take precise constraints into account: no entry once the service has begun, silence, no explanations out loud inside, and advance contact with the community for any visit outside hours. To set up these details ahead of time, a useful resource for those who organize group trips is Tour Leader Pro.

The Christuskirche fits well into a trip that looks at the less obvious Rome, that of foreign communities, academies and the neighborhoods born after Unification, and which perhaps continues out of town toward the Castelli or the Sabina. For anyone who wants to put all this together in an orderly program, a useful resource for putting together a multi-day itinerary is Italy Planner.