San Paolo Apostolo, Albano Laziale

St. Paul's Church, elevated since 1999 to the Shrine of St. Gaspar del Bufalo, is a Catholic place of worship in Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome in the Suburbicarian See of Albano.

The church houses the relics of St. Gaspar del Bufalo, founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood venerated by many faithful, making this shrine one of the main pilgrimage centers in Latium and Italy.

Adjacent to the church is the majestic College of the Precious Blood where, in an atmosphere of silence and serenity young laymen are preparing to spend a year of discernment before entering the major seminary of missionaries. Next to this large complex are also the ancient Roman Cisternoni, a large Roman cistern measuring about 30 x 50 meters that is one of the symbols of the town.

The two structures were built around the year 1282, in their own grounds, by Cardinal Giacomo Savelli, later to become pope under the name Honorius IV. In 1710, the painter Gaspar Van Wittel, on the occasion of Pope Clement XI Albani's visit to Albano, portrayed the church and the adjoining convent in a splendid canvas.

In 1769, Cardinal Marcantonio Colonna completely restored the entire complex, modifying it in part, especially in the interior of the church, where there is a rather reworked Baroque taste, while the facade denotes a 19th-century neoclassical style.

Among the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century canvases in the building, placed near the altars, the one behind the main altar stands out, depicting the anointing of St. Paul, a late seventeenth-century work by a painter belonging to the school of Pietro da Cortona. The vault of the nave is decorated with a 19th-century fresco, attributable to Gagliardi, who was very active in Albano at that time.