CHRISTIAN ROME

Christian Rome tour visiting the basilica of St Mary the Major, built after the first council of Ephesus (431) which proclaimed St. Mary mother of God. According to a legend it was founded after a miraculous snowfall on August. It houses a venerated relic of the crib. The V century mosaics, describing scenes from the Apocryphal Gospels and the Old testament,  are among the oldest Christian mosaics in Rome. The superb medieval mosaics of the apse show the Virgin crowned by her son, sitting on the same throne.

The Holy Steps, not too far,  are still climbed by pilgrims on their knees. Believers identify them with the ones of Pilate’s palace, ascended by Jesus. They lead to the Papal Chapel called Sancta Sanctorum or Holy of Holies, objet of great devotion in the middle ages for all the relics it contained. A very ancient and venerated icon of Jesus (V century) survives. The XIII century frescoes and the gold mosaics on the vaults are true gems. This was the private chapel of the popes when they resided at the Lateran.

St John in the Lateran is the cathedral of Rome, mother of all churches in the world, it is the very first Christian church ever built. The interior was redesigned by the great architect Borromini. The church keeps its primary role and boasts a precious fresco attributed to Giotto showing pope Boniface VIII proclaiming the fist Holy year.

St Paul outside the Walls is the second largest church in Rome, after St. Peter and the third largest one in the world (after St. Paul’s in London). Initially built under the emperor Constantine, on the burial of St. Paul, beheaded in Rome under the persecutions of Nero.  Partly destroyed by a fire in 1823, fortunately some its treasures survived: its Medieval Venetian mosaics on the apse, the Gothic canopy by Cavallini and Arnolfo di Cambio, the Romanesque Paschal candlestick and its charming cloister.  The basilica boasts a unique collection of mosaic portraits of all the popes from St. Peter to the present one.