San Luigi dei Francesi is the French National Church, founded by Cardinal Giulio dei Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, in 1518 and completed in 1589 by Domenico Fontana, based on a design by Giacomo della Porta. It is located in the Sant’Eustachio district, a few steps from Piazza Navona and the Pantheon, and is famous for masterpieces by Caravaggio, Domenichino and Guido Reni.
The interior of the church has three naves, punctuated by massive arches separated by pillars, defined laterally by five chapels on each side, concluded by a deep presbytery and covered by an elaborate barrel vault. The second chapel of the right aisle is dedicated to Saint Cecilia and houses frescoes with stories from the life of the saint by Domenichino and the altarpiece of Saint Cecilia by Guido Reni. The last one in the left aisle is the Contarelli Chapel, named after the Italianised name of the French cardinal Mathieu Cointrel, which houses three paintings by Caravaggio between 1599 and 1602. Above the entrance door is the splendid organ, built by Joseph Merklin in 1881.
The church also houses a number of tombs, including those of Pauline de Beaumont, built by her lover François-René de Chateaubriand, Cardinal François Joachin de Bernis, ambassador of Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and Frederic Bastiat, the 19th century liberal economist and writer.
