High altar of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin on the foot of the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy. This church was founded in the 6th century on the ruins of the statio annonae, the food-distribution center of classical Rome. Enlarged by Pope Hadrian I in the 8th century, it was given to the Greek community who lived near the Tiber. From that time the church was known as Santa Maria in Cosmedin, after the name of a quarter in Constantinople, Beneath the portico is the famous mouth of truth Bocca della veritÃÂ . At the end of the last century, the architect Giovanni Battista Giovenale gave the church its excessively medieval appearance. Noteworthy features include the portico, the elegant Romanesque campanile, the schola cantorum choir, the rich Cosmatesque pavement and decorations, and the Gothic baldacchino over the high altar.
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