The Oratorio di San Filippo Neri was built in the late seventeenth century by the Oratorians, a religious congregation devoted to music as a means of meditation. The original interior was lavishly frescoed and stuccoed.
In 1944 an Allied bomb destroyed the apse and most of the ceiling. After decades as a ruin, the building was partially restored in 1999 and turned into a concert hall — but rather than rebuild the lost decoration the architects left the shattered walls visible behind a glass partition. It is now one of the most evocative chamber-music venues in Italy. Worth catching a concert if the programme allows.