Order of Malta and Santa Maria del Priorato

This neoclassical complex of buildings belonging to the Knights of Malta is the work of Giovan Battista Piranesi. Albericus II was the first to establish a courtly rule in Rome and an abbey was founded in the 10th century in the palace that his family had built on the Aventine Hil

This abbey was given to the Benedictine Monks in the 12th century and then, later, to the order of Templars. The building became the property of the sovereign order of Malta in 1312 and today the headquarters of its priorate are here. Here you will find the famous portal through whose lock you can see St. Peter's dome.
Of all the hills of Rome, the Aventine Hill was the least accessible and also the most isolated. Originally a business quarter thronged with foreigners, the Aventine was included inside the 6th-century BC city walls, but it was not considered part of the pomerium, the sacred city limits, until Imperial times. When the hill was declared to be public property in the 5th century BC, it was given to the plebs, the common people, and became a kind of lower class acropolis.
This is where Gaius Gracchus, in the 2nd century BC, took refuge with his followers in their valiant attempt to defend the city. In Imperial times, the Aventine became an aristocratic residential quarter; both Hadrian and Trajan chose the area for their homes before they became Emperor. The Goths were also attracted here by the wealth of the houses during the siege of Alaric.