The latter is the gate by which Totila the Goth entered Rome in 547 during the Gothic Wars. Pope Leo's own monument is by Giulio Tadolini 1907. The modern opinion is that Cordier and Il Valsoldo did most of the work. The first storey is the entrance loggia, approached by a short flight of steps. This one, after he took the place of Peter, left the world by his death after a propitius space [of time]. The monument shows the pope's effigy reclining on a draped sarcophagus over the door into the museum, and above the tympanum of the arch contains sculptures of Christ accompanied by SS Francis and Dominic (the pope had authorized their new Orders). In the cove is an ornate coat-of-arms presumably (and anachronistically) meant to be of Alexander III, while the stylized-mountains-and-star finials flanking this are from the coat-of-arms of Alexander VII. Another important route for pilgrims ran to the Tiber quays via the Clivus Scauri, San Gregorio Magno al Celio and the north side of the Circus Maximus. Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano (suom. There is a plan here, and a Cathopedia page here. You might ask why modern blacksmiths can't do this sort of thing -the reason is that wrought iron is now made nowhere in the world, and mild steel is simply not up to the job. Two lions are sheltering under the sarcophagus, which is flanked by two pairs of pink alabaster Doric columns supporting a red marble cornice which curves under the window. The hemispherical dome itself has seven rings of square coffers with rosettes, ascending to an oculus containing the Dove of the Holy Spirit in glory. The two ladies are in a gallery here. The far walls of the cross arms each contain an arch, one for the entrance, one for the altar aedicule and the two side ones for funerary monuments. In between these the entablature is broken for an arch, which shelters an organ (the choir has two) standing on a corbelled balcony with yellow marble baluster pins. These are by Carlo Monaldi; Abundance is on the left, and Magnificence on the right. However, the first mention of the dedication dates from the mid 7th century in the reign of Pope Martin I (649-55). Into the curve of this is tightly fitted a round-headed frame in the yellow marble again, which now contains a painted wooden crucifix on a grey marble background (apparently the altarpiece used to be a Nativity by Nicola da Pesaro). The confusion is not impressive -could the art critics actually have a look and decide, instead of copying each other? The Oratory of St Venantius was founded next to the baptistery by Pope John IV (640-642). The Cosmatesque floor is from the 14th century, a late example of this technique. The basilica was initially administered by a college of secular priests, who were already expected to follow a common rule of life although their status as Canons Regular of the Lateran was to come later around the turn of the millennium. These three sacristies are referred to as the Sagrestia Antica (or Vecchia) or the Sagrestia dei Beneficiati, the Sagrestia dei Canonici and the Sagrestia Nuova. The chapel is a spectacular, no-expenses-spared example of what is usually called late Baroque (tardobarocco). The dedication is to St Andrew Corsini, although the chapel which was here beforehand was dedicated to St Gregory the Great. Virginio Vespignani built a new pair of sacristies beyond this, surrounded by a little warren of useful ancillary rooms. The popes after 1870 completely refused to accept the annexation of Rome by Italy in that year, a situation that pertained until 1929. However, modern opinion is that neither identification is correct and that the statue and slab do not belong together. There was another restoration by Pope St Gregory the Great in about 590. He apparently intended it to be one of a pair (as all other known obelisks are), and it is thought that the twin would have been the Unfinished Obelisk, still in the quarry after it was abandoned when a flaw developed in the stone. Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more. Diego Angeli, writing in 1903, mentioned that the confessionals in this aisle were decorated with bronze relief showing scenes from the life of Christ by one T. A. Mazzani 1864. Drei Jahrhunderte später gab Kaiser Konstantin den Palast Papst Miltiades zurück, woraufhin der Palast als päpstliche Wohnung genutzt wurde. The conquests of Islam in the latter 7th century meant that many monastics of Eastern rite came to Rome as refugees. The new civic space was the terminus of the equally new Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, laid out from the Colosseum in order to give a proper direct route from the city for papal processions. (Far side) Pope Urban again, with Grimoard again to the right and Guglielmo d'Agrifoglio to the left. In 1674, the Ceva family commissioned Carlo Rainaldi to restore the Chapel of St Ventantius, replacing the old altar in the process. This ranks as an ecumenical council of the Church, and almost a thousand bishops and religious superiors attended. There are five large external chapels off the nave side aisles, added by the simple expedient of knocking holes through the outer side walls of the church in order to provide access. Today’s anniversary reminds us of the power and wisdom of God which flows through Christ’s Church into the world. These arms have barrel vaulting embellished with gilded octagonal coffers containing rosettes, four rows for the main arms but only two for the side arms. The most important aspect of this project was the fresco work by Giotto. Opposite is thought to be the tomb of the humanist Lorenzo Valla 1457, a Canon Regular of the Lateran and one of the greatest philologists of his time. To the south-west is the Baptistery, and beyond that are the buildings of the university. to associate with a faithful mind. Above each aedicule is a rectangular (almost square) stucco relief panel, allegedly originally intended to be in bronze. La basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano o cattedrale di Roma, nome completo Papale arcibasilica maggiore cattedrale arcipretale del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano (in latino Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sanctorum Ioannis Baptistae et Ioannis Evangelistae in Laterano) è la cattedrale della diocesi di Roma, attualmente retta da papa Francesco … The statue replaced a wooden one, which is now in the confessio of the basilica. After a completely disastrous re-fitting in 1934 which rendered it unusable, it was restored to full working order in 1984. The central nave is flanked by two aisles on each side (in the English way of describing a church like this, although the Italian equivalent is "five naves"). This meant the loss of the 5th century mosaics that it contained, which apparently had already started to fall off in the early part of the century. The piazza was designed to be the terminus of the new papal processional road of the Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, opened in the same year for Pope Sixtus V. This street was declared to be the city's Via Gay by the municipality in 2007 and, as such, has its own web-page here which is winsomely pastel compared to similar offerings from other European cities. Many of the ancient verde antico columns re-used to embellish Baroque aedicules inserted into the niches in the central piers. The spandrels of the arches have stars, stylized mountains and lions holding pear-boughs, all from the heraldry of Pope Sixtus. Just to the left of the door is a wall memorial to Clemente Argevillières 1859, with a weeping putto holding a portrait medallion. For example, one canon regular sent to be the administrator by the Chapter built a mansion in the city for his sodomisée mistress out of abbey funds (following the neat delusion that priestly celibacy is only breached by vaginal sex). Dedication: The eastern entrance is similar. The main organ is over the side entrance at the right end of the transept, leading in from under the Loggia of Benedictions. It is thought that the seraph replaced a Hand of God which, with Christ and the Dove below him, would have given a Trinitarian iconography. Pope Clement XII began the project in good time by holding a competition in 1732 for the design of a new façade and portico to replace the mediaeval one. The revetting around the altarpiece is in yellow alabaster. It bears a central medallion showing The Baptism of Christ. It has a barrel vault coffered in hexagons which are arranged in transverse rows, tessellated with lozenges and with a central relief panel showing the coat-of-arms of Pope Clement XII. It is thought that they originally came from the Loggia of Benedictions of Pope Boniface VIII, or from the Annibaldi tomb the remains of which are now in the bottom end of the outer left hand aisle. Il suo nome deriva dalla maestosa basilica papale di San Giovanni in Laterano, la cui origine risale al tempo di Costantino.In precedenza, al tempo di Settimio Severe, c’era le caserme della cavalleria imperiale. The columns support a horizontal entablature spanning the portal, made up of three large blocks of stone. There follows the entrance lobby to the palace, designed by Fontana but altered by Borromini. Eight more are folded into the far corners of the cross arms. These are evidence that Pope Urban VIII had the colonnade dismantled and re-erected in his restoration. Other elements from this destroyed work are in the cloister. The only way to Santa Maria Maggiore was via a lane to Sant'Eusebio all'Esquilino and then through the Arch of Gallienus. Below the statues are doors in ebony with doorcases in verde antico and yellow marbles, the one to the left of the altar leading to the crypt. The posts are continued as an entablature down the side walls, to meet the corresponding posts of the apse triumphal arch. There is a strong suspicion that the original commissioner was Hatshepsut, the "queen pharaoh" who temporarily supplanted Tuthmosis when he was a boy. The conch of the apse containing the cathedra had a mosaic featuring vine-scrolls in gold. The left hand chapel is dedicated to SS Rufina and Secunda, local Roman martyrs who used to have a 4th century cathedral basilica on the Via di Boccea near what is now the western suburb of Selva Candida. It was as a result of Borromini's restoration that the church was given its present Baroque appearance, and it no longer looks like ancient basilica. Despite, the Chapter voted to make the reigning King of France an honorary canon in gratitude, and this conceit is still offered to the President of the Republic of France. However, four of the capitals depict mythological creatures including one rather alarming goat-demon. They can all be identified by clear attributes, and also have labels on their plinths. As well as private houses for small gatherings, it is suspected that early Roman Christians merely rented commercial meeting-halls for their larger gatherings -and so the pope might not have had a permanent and Church-owned cathedral before Constantine at all. To its north-west is the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano with its obelisk, and this has been historically the main focus of the church's civic presence. The polychrome marble cladding of the walls and floor here are by Borromini. The fresco fragment is attributed to Giotto, although there has been a lot of argument about this. Pietro Francesco de Rossi 1683; Isabella Sforza 1561, with an attractive cameo portrait; Angelo Parracciani 1691, thought to be by Domenico Guidi from the style of the three allegorical figures of Fame, Time and Death; Andrea Sacchi the painter, 1661 with a portrait bust by Paolo Naldini; Cavalier d'Arpino the painter, 1640 by Niccolò Menghini; Antonio Lorenzo Ratta 1689, Angelo Picchioni 1852, Tommaso Masini 1866, Gabriele Filippucci 1706 and Gerolamo Berti 1714. In the spandrels of the nave and choir arches are frescoes of the Evangelists. See here for a photo of the aedicule, and here for a close-up. Cardinal Guala Bicchieri put up a large sum for their completion in 1230, and the work was finished by Niccolò in 1234. The first baptistery known, that is, a structure built for the specific purpose of baptism, is this one in Rome. About one to four metres of its seriously damaged base was sawn off before it was re-erected here. A marble relief panel including statue of St James the Great by the school of Andrea Bregno is in this location, dating from 1492. This especially applies to the stucco work. A limited excavations was carried out, which revealed a large house around a trapezoidal courtyard which was predictably hailed as the Domus Faustae. (The attribution of the monument to Vignola seems to be a mistake propagated online.). It has a hemispherical dome in lead on a circular brick drum with large rectangular windows, which you can see if you peer round the left hand corner of the entrance façade. To the top left there is a relief of a pope holding a globe and standing in front of a Gothic façade with two towers -thought to be a representation of the mediaeval basilica. The altar frontal features polychrome marble work on a backing of red jasper. Background detailing was done by Ferraù Fenzoni and Paul Bril (the latter especially the landscapes). If the 7th century entry in the Liber Pontificalis is to be trusted (a big "if"), the free-standing main altar had a fastigium (baldacchino ?) In 1910, under Pope St Pius X, the Lapidario Ebraico was established here also which is a unique collection of one hundred and thirty seven Roman Jewish epitaphs from ancient cemeteries in Rome (mostly from catacombs on the Via Portuense). This is the senior of the four major basilicas of Rome, the other three (on order of seniority) being San Pietro in Vaticano, San Paolo fuori le Mura and Santa Maria Maggiore. Inde Ravennatis meruit conscendere summum Eccesiae regimen, nobilis atque potens. Here, you will find a small shop and ticket counter. Pope Clement VIII had this room fitted out. Clergy: There are four storeys. The entrance from the piazza is flanked by a pair of monochrome depictions, of the emperor Constantine and Pope Sylvester, of SS John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. The three very similarly designed wings are arranged around an almost square courtyard to the north of the basilica -almost square but not quite, because if you count the rows of windows in each upper storey you will find fifteen in the west wing, thirteen in the north one and eleven in the east one. He is buried in the crypt beneath the chapel, and is watched over there by a marble Pietà by Antonio Montauti 1733. Here, note that the right hand column has a break, and that the upper part is in a different colour from that of the left hand one. Denomination: The Portico and Ancient Roman Bronze Doors. The reason for the aperture is that under the mensa is preserved the alleged wooden tabletop on which St Peter and his successors are said to have celebrated the Eucharist right up to the time that the basilica was built. In Republican times the locality of the basilica was a convenient exurban open space outside the Porta Caelimontana in the old Servian Walls, which was used for casual recreational and military training activities. and Jerome (?) The archivolt of this is supported by two pairs of grey granite columns, and the spandrels have a pair of putti in relief. A close-up of the surviving mediaeval elements is here. It also joins up with the transverse corridor which is part of the museum. These included the Spinario, the Lex de imperio Vespasiani and the fragments of the Colossus of Constantine. Insons esse volens isto mundare lavacro, seu patrio premeris crimine seu proprio. This was taken as evidence of a circular 4th (?) The near right hand one is Composite and is in granito dell'Elba, but the two back ones have derivative capitals featuring griffins and are in what is described as granito orientale (Egyptian, from Mons Claudianus?). Pope Nicholas IV (1288-92) ordered a remodelling of the sanctuary area of the basilica. These columns support two little segmental pediments, on which are plinths with kneeling putti. Above, the Dove of the Holy Spirit emits seven streams from its beak which are symbolic of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Entry is via the doorway under the tomb of Pope Leo XIII. Virgineo fetu genitrix Ecclesia natos, quos spirante Deo concipit amne parit. This lower register is separated from the upper by a single-line epigraph recording the commissioning of the original mosaic by Pope Nicholas, and from the large epigraph below by another little single-line text which proclaims that the seat beneath is reserved to the Pope. Fortunately one of the two ancient conch mosaics had survived, although damaged, and this was left alone. An unprovable hypothesis is that this name originally referred to guards with javelins standing at the entrance to the palace, and that later the word pilati was taken to refer to Pontius Pilate -and so the legend of the Scala Santa was born. (Left side) Christ the Good Shepherd with three saintly bishops and one cardinal, who look like the four Doctors of the Church -St Gregory is certainly the one on the far left, for he has the Dove of the Holy Spirit whispering in his ear, the cardinal looks like St Jerome and the other two would be SS Augustine and Ambrose. These columns support a horizontal entablature, with a frieze in blue with little white rosettes except at the front where an epigraph records the restoration of Pope Pius IX in 1851: Pius IX Pont. The corridor beyond runs down the left hand side of the choir and apse to access the three sacristies. Many pilgrims come here to climb them, always on their knees, while contemplating on the Passion of Christ. Pope Urban VIII (1623-9) began a massive restoration project in 1625, and you can spot the bees from the heraldry of his family, the Barberini, infesting the interior in several places. San Giovanni in Laterano is a heavily restored and remodelled 4th century basilica which is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, having its address as Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano in the rione Monti. Above the entrance to the apse is the inscription NON EST IN TOTO SANCTIOR ORBE LOCUS ("there is no holier place in all the world"). The sanctuary has a barrel vault with three Baroque fresco panels, and over the altar aedicule is a large lunette window. The Chapter of the Lateran obtained the property in 1604, but then oversaw a shocking and disgusting series of scandals involving the resident abbey clergy and those of the diocese of Agen. The throne itself is an ancient marble bath-chair, which is flanked by two pairs of columns supporting two crocketted pinnacles. By tradition the emperor granted Pope Miltiades the barracks and the so-called Domus Faustae for his headquarters as soon as he entered the city as victor in 312, and a church edifice was immediately consecrated here on 9 November 312. A fragment of the True Cross was venerated here in mediaeval times. The latter are shown explicitly as suffering in Rome, as it was their martyrdoms that first turned the city into a holy place. The fresco was restored in 1952, when it was found to be in poor condition and heavily retouched. Unusually for the time, the Vassalletti did not make use of scavenged ancient material for the stonework but carved the columns from new. Recorded on the entablature supports eight light grey marble each of these contain slabs or roundels in dark grey white! 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