Capital of Christianity, Rome, with almost 1000 churches, is the city that has the most churches in the world.
In addition to the four papal basilicas, including St. Peter's Basilica and the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano (which is also the cathedral of Rome), there are churches paleo-Christian and medieval as the Pantheon) (the inscription that can be seen on the architrave of the tympanum M AGRIPPA L F COS TERTIUM FECIT is from the original building dating back to 27-25 BC) , Santa Maria in Cosmedin, between the Circus Maximus and the Tiber, known above all for the Bocca della Verità, on a wall of the entrance or the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere , dating back to the XII century.
With its long Christian history, Rome is also rich in Baroque and Renaissance churches, especially present in the historic centre, such as Santa Maria del Popolo, built on the site where Nero died and was buried , in today's Piazza del Popolo, San Luigi dei Francesi, the national church of the French of Rome and which houses three famous paintings by Caravaggio or Sant'Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona (hence the name of the square).
In Rome there is also the beautiful Gothic church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, a few steps away from the Pantheon and the Catacombs.
Basilica of S. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri
This is the beautiful church that overlooks Piazza della Repubblica, not far from Termini station and
it is the church where the official celebrations of the Italian Republic take place.It owes its name to the Sicilian priest Antonio del Duca, devoted to the cult of angels, following a vision in which he saw a "light more than white snow" rising from the Baths of Diocletian.
The basilica was then built from the arrangement of the frigidarium (the central hall) of the Baths of Diocletian on a project by Michelangelo Buonarroti (who at the time was already working on St. Peter's Basilica)
The Sundial
S. Maria degli Angeli is also famous for the sundial, called Clementine Line, built by Pope Clement XI in 1702 in order to verify the validity of the Gregorian Calendar Reform.
It consists of two fundamental elements: a large bronze line on the floor oriented exactly from South to North for about 45 meters and a hole at the top from which sunlight penetrates, called the "gnomonic hole", with a diameter of about 2 cm , i.e. the thousandth part of its height from the floor (20.34 meters), as was the practice at the time.
Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Located near the Pantheon, in the Pigna district, it is one of the very few Gothic churches in Rome and is so called because it was believed that the church was built above the temple of "Minerva Chalcidica", known from the sources to have been built by Domitian in the Campo Marzio.
The interior of the basilica has three naves marked by massive pillars with a transept and deep apse, and along the walls there is a dense fresco decoration in the neo-Gothic style.
The basilica also preserves valuable works of art including the frescoes by Filippino Lippi, the statue of Christ carrying the cross, by Michelangelo or the fifteenth-century sarcophagus with the remains of the body of Santa Caterina da Siena. The basilica also houses the sepulchres of some illustrious personalities, including popes Leo X, Clement VII and the mystical painter Beato Angelico
In the convent adjacent to this church, on 22 June 1633, Galileo Galilei, suspected of heresy, abjured his scientific theses.
The obelisk
In the square in front of the church there is one of the nine Egyptian obelisks in Rome.
The obelisk is approximately 5.50 meters high and is positioned on the back of a marble elephant as a glorification of Alexander VII. In a contemporary poem, in fact, we read: "The Egyptian obelisk, symbol of the sun, is carried by the elephant to the seventh Alexander as a gift. Isn't the animal wise? Wisdom has given the world only you, Alexander, therefore you have the gifts of the Sun".
Dedicated to Pope Clement I, it is located on the road that connects the Colosseum to San Giovanni in Laterano, in the valley between the Celio and the Esquiline.
The basilica we see today was built in the 12th century but is known because it rises above ancient buildings buried two levels deep, the first of which dates back to the 1st century AD. In the three levels there are therefore: the current basilica, of medieval origin, an older basilica, on the lower level, in a building that formerly housed a Roman patrician, and, even further down, a set of Roman buildings from the post-Nero era .
The buildings rediscovered at the lowest level, on which the basilica stands, are two: a large building probably intended as a warehouse (horreum) and a residential building (insula), better known among scholars as the building of the Mithraeum because, in the between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century, a Mitreo), a small temple dedicated to the cult of the god Mithras, of oriental origin and most probably imported to Rome with the legions returning from the campaigns in Asia Minor, around 67 BC.
Opening hours
In order to visit the basement of the basilica it is necessary to book admission on the official website in order to avoid overcrowding at certain times and to guarantee a safe and pleasant visit experience for all visitors
