Pontifical Roman Athenaeum Saint Apollinare

Initially, the Palace of St. Apollinare was used as a residence for various cardinals, until 1574, when Pope Gregory XIII gave the building to the Jesuits for the German College.

Despite this, in 1702 a chapel was redecorated and dedicated to St Francis Xavier, and a statue of the saint was commissioned from French sculptor Pierre Le Gros.

The college was closed in 1798, when the French army occupied the city but was reopened in 1818 and eventually relocated to the Via S. Nicola da Tolentino.

In 1824, when Pope Leo XII transferred the Seminario Romano to the Palazzo di Sant'Apollinare, formerly occupied by the Collegio Germanico.

The Pontificio Seminario Pio was founded in 1853 by Pope Pius IX for the dioceses of the Papal States and was intended for seminarians from all regions of Italy.

[5] In 1983 the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music re-located to the Abbey of San Girolamo in Urbe, where teaching and daily liturgy are carried out, whereas the legal and historical headquarters continued to be in Sant’Apollinare.