Category: Art and History

Rome's most artistic city, present in the common imagination thanks to Federico Fellini's film 'La dolce vita' in which Anita Ekberg bathes dressed in her basin

Fountain showing the Virgin Water brought to Rome in 19 BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to supply the baths he built at the Pantheon . The water was named Virgin in homage to a young girl who would point out the spring to thirsty soldiers. In 1453 Pope Nicholas V had a fountain built by Giovan Battista Alberti in the locality known as 'dello Trejo' and over the years it became Trevi. The fountain was an important moment for the city, which was returning to spring water after having used water from the Tiber for centuries. Three centuries later Pope Clement XII decided to replace it and held a competition inviting the best artists of his time to participate. The aim was to adorn Rome with a grandiose work and provide it with more drinking water. From the sketches, that of the Roman NicolಠSalvi was chosen. The construction of the fountain lasted 23 years and covered the entire side of the Palazzo Poli .

Trevi Fountain has in the middle a triumphal arch surmounted by an attic on which stands the coat of arms of Clement XII . In the centre of a rocky base stands the statue of 'Ocean' on a shell chariot drawn by two sea horses driven by tritons. The horses represent the agitated and calm sea. The two statues on either side of Oceano represent Salubrity and Prosperity, a clear allusion to the beneficial effects of pure water.
The bas-reliefs above recall Agrippa's approval of the aqueduct project and the legend of the virgin pointing out the spring to the Romans. In the basin representing the sea, tourists throw a coin to ensure their return to Rome. Another romantic ritual is linked to the fountain on the left side called the 'lovers' fountain'. According to legend, couples who drink at this fountain are privileged to remain faithful forever.

This mausoleum was built by Hadrian to house his body and those of his successors. In order to connect this tomb with the region of the Campus Martius, an additional bridge over the Tiber, the Aelius Bridge, was built and inaugurated in 134 AD. The construction of the mausoleum was completed, after Hadrian's death (138 A.D.), in 139 A.D., by Antoninus Pius: at first, therefore, Hadrian was buried elsewhere, and precisely in Pozzuoli.

The building had a square brick base, 89 m on a side and 15 m high. Within this enclosure was the circular drum, made of concrete, 64 m in diameter and 21 m high. On the outside, the entire mausoleum must have appeared to be covered with marble. The present entrance is higher than the original one, which it replaces, by about 3 m. Through the corridor one reaches a square chamber (vestibulum), with a semicircular niche in the back wall, where a large statue of Hadrian must have been placed. To the right of this room begins an annular corridor, paved in white mosaic, leading to the burial chamber: four vertical shafts served to illuminate the gallery. It describes a complete circle, reaching a height of 10 m above the quadrangular room (vestibulum). From here, a corridor leads to the burial chamber, located exactly in the centre of the monument. In this square room, originally entirely covered with marble, were buried the successors of Hadrian, up to Caracalla . Above this are two other rooms and, at the top of the monument, a podium supported the bronze quadriga with the statue of Hadrian. The sepulchral use of the monument ceased with Septimius Severus (193-211 AD). Around 400 AD the mausoleum was already included in an advanced bastion of the Aurelian Wall, probably built by Honorius. From this time the tomb, hitherto called Adrianeum or Templum Adriani, took the name Castellum. In 537 A.D. it bore the siege of Vitiges' Goths and it was on that occasion, as Procopius recounts, that the defenders even used the numerous statues that adorned the monument as projectiles! Around the 10th century, the transformation into a castle probably took place: fortified by Crescentius, of the Alberic family, it took the name castrum Crescentii. Theodoric used it as a prison (Carceres Theodorici) and this function was maintained at the 'castle' also under the popes and the Italian government, until 1901. The statue of the Angel, which gives the castle its name, was placed on its summit in memory of the apparition to St. Gregory the Great in 1600 of the angel who, sheathing his sword, announced the end of the severe plague that had struck Rome. Next to the angel's statue is the Bell of Mercy, which mournfully announced the executions. The present angel is made of bronze and is the work of Pietro van Verschaffelt: it is the sixth in the series. The first, made of wood, was replaced due to wear and tear; the second, made of marble, collapsed and fell to pieces; the third, made of marble, was struck by lightning; the fourth, made of bronze, was melted down to make cannons in 1527, during the Sack of Rome; the fifth, made of marble with bronze wings, is today in the Ball Courtyard (so called because of the piles of cannon balls of all sizes that constituted the castle's ammunition). The current one, made of bronze, was painted white, red and blue by the French in 1798 and, wearing a Phrygian cap on his head, was renamed 'Genius of France Liberator of Rome'. In the Capitoline Museum there is a circular stone on which tradition recognises the footprint of the Archangel when he stopped to announce the end of the plague. In 1277, the 'Vatican Corridor' was built, leading from the Vatican Palace to Castel S. Angelo to provide the pope with an escape route in case of danger. Terrible were its prisons, which can still be visited today, especially the cell known as the Sammalo or San Marocco, in which the condemned prisoner was lowered from above and could barely manage to settle bent over as he could neither stand nor lie down. Illustrious prison guests include Benvenuto Cellini, who managed to escape but was caught and thrown into the dungeon, where he consoled himself by painting a resurrected Christ, traces of which still remain. In the emperors' burial chamber took refuge Cola di Rienzo, on his first expulsion in 1347, and Clement VII, during the Sack. Under Leo X and Pius IV, theatrical performances were also held in the castle and, until the beginning of our century, on special occasions, the Girandola, a firework created, it seems, by Michelangelo, was lit there. Today the castle houses a museum and its rooms are beautifully frescoed.

The square is named after the famous Mouth of Truththe famous mask placed in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. According to a well-known Roman legend, the menacing mouth would eat the hand of anyone who placed their hand inside it and lied

The square is in the centre of the ancient mercantile area of Rome between the river port, near the Tiber Island, and the Emporium.
The Foro Olitorio (or Vegetable Forum) and the Foro Boario were located here; bankers and moneychangers conducted their business in the Velabro .

After the fall of the empire, under Byzantine influence, it was the centre of the Greek colony.
Executions by guillotine were carried out here until 1868. It was here that the famous Mastro Titta, who from 1796 to 1864 became infamous for cutting off 516 heads, operated! Today, the square boasts a unique ensemble of monuments: two still-preserved ancient temples, an 18th century fountain and an early medieval church with a splendid bell tower.

The so-called Temple of Vesta is the oldest Roman marble temple with a circular plan and dates back to the 2nd century B.C. Erroneously attributed to Vesta because of its similar plan to the temple of the same name in the Roman Forum, it was actually dedicated to Hercules. It was used as a church and the interior walls are frescoed with paintings from the 15th century. To the side stands the temple of Portunus, deity of the river port, an example of Greco-Roman architecture dating back to the 2nd century BC.
Home until the 19th century to the church of St Mary of Egypt, a former courtesan and therefore the protector of women of ill repute.
To decorate the square in 1715 the Pope Clement XI he had a late Baroque fountain placed there by Carlo Bizzaccheri, two tritons with intertwined tails lift two shells at the centre of which the mountains, symbol of the Albani family, launch a gush into the air

La St Peter's Basilica is located in the Vatican City, an independent sovereign state on the right bank of the Tiber, within RomeTiny in size, the Vatican State is what remains of the Church's temporal dominions, which were annexed to united Italy at the end of the 19th century.

The Basilica as we see it today, with its ribbed dome towering imposingly and the square that seems to welcome all the faithful of the world into the embrace of Mother Church, is the work of the most distinguished architects and geniuses of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and rests on the foundations of the Constantinian basilica, which lasted over a thousand years and which in turn rested on a sacred area of pagan-Christian mausoleums.

St. Peter's Square with its famous colonnade, one of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's most ingenious inventions, is 320 metres deep with a central ellipse of 240 metres and is surrounded by four rows of 284 columns and 88 pillars. The balustrade above the columns is decorated with 140 statues of saints. At the bottom is an enormous three-tiered staircase with statues of St Peter and St Paul on either side. In the middle of the square are two large fountains and the obelisk.

The façade of the basilica, 114.69 m wide and 47.3 m high, made of Tivoli travertine, has a single order of columns and Corinthian pilasters framing a large central portico with two arches on either side (the left one gives access to the Vatican City); above are nine balconies with windows (the central one is the Loggia of Blessings) and a canonical attic surmounted by a balustrade supporting thirteen statues. Five bronze doors lead into the interior. Above it all is the grandiose 'Michelangelo dome' and the smaller domes of the Gregorian and Clementine chapels.

Inside, the Basilica is 186 m long (218.7 with the portico), the height of the main nave is 46 m, the height of the hollow of the dome is 119 m. Under the dome is the papal altar on which Bernini's famous canopy stands.
The sumptuousness of the interior leaves one breathless: 45 altars, 11 chapels, some 10,000 square metres of mosaics and numerous other works of art such as Michelangelo's Pieta .
Below St. Peter's Church are the tombs of numerous popes.

It was Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who wanted a basilica built in 315 A.D. on the exact spot where the tomb of Christ's first Apostle was venerated.

The Vatican area was originally unhealthy and sparsely inhabited. Its conditions improved at the beginning of the 1st century, when the part closest to the Tiber was reclaimed. Later gardens, vast parks, villas and some large buildings were built, such as the Naumachia Vaticana , probably used for water games, Hadrian's Mausoleum , today Castel Sant'Angelo , and Caligula's private circus . Along the Via Cornelia instead stood sepulchres, are and funerary cippus, in compliance with a strict Roman law that wanted all burial places outside built-up areas.

Built by the Emperor Caligula between 37 and 40 A.D., it stood on the left flank of the present basilica, in the valley leading down to the river. The circus was to be the scene of the first Christian persecution by Nero . The location of the circus had been known since at least the 17th century, also due to the fact that the obelisk that stood in its centre remained in its original place until 1586, when it was moved to the centre of St Peter's Square at the behest of Sixtus V .

Domenico Fontana recounted the event in a book, Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V, Roma 1590 . It took 40,000 scudi of expenditure, 800 workers, 140 horses, 40 winches; Sixtus V issued an edict punishing with death anyone who obstructed the work, or even just made noise: the lifting operations, in absolute silence, had to be accompanied only by the sound of a trumpet.  It is said that Fontana gave the order to have his horse ready to flee in case the obelisk collapsed. Fontana succeeded thanks to one of the workers, sailor Bresca, who, sensing that the support ropes were about to break, broke the silence with a desperate: "water to the ropes!".

To witness the radical transformation of the entire Vatican area, one has to go back to the 4th century, when Christianity rapidly imposed itself on pagan cults. After the abdication of Diocletian, author of the last great persecution, the succession struggles for the conquest of power saw the appointment of Constantine as emperor in 307. The son of a general of Diocletian, Constantine was definitively recognised in his office in 312, when near Rome, at Saxa Rubra, on 28 October he defeated the army of his rival Maxentius, who drowned in the Tiber. The following year, with the Edict of Milan, the Emperor established the liberalisation of religion, so that Christianity was no longer hindered and could be freely professed.

From then on, political and religious power were no longer unified in the single person of the emperor, to the point that in 330 he moved the capital to the East, founding a city named after himself on the Bosporus: Constantinople. Instead, he made Rome the religious centre of the Empire, and to this end he initiated an intensive building programme that was to provide the nascent Church with suitable seats. First of all, a basilica was built to properly celebrate the prince of the apostles. Then that of St John Lateran with the Pontiff's residence and the imperial palace; then St Cross in Jerusalem, St Peter and Marcellinus, St Sebastian, St Lawrence Outside the Walls and finally St Agnes .

La St Peter's Basilica grew also thanks to interventions and donations by princes and pontiffs; in 800 Charlemagne was crowned there by Leo III°, and after him Lothair, Ludwig II° and Frederick III°

On the threshold of the early Middle Ages there is the progressive decline of the city of Rome, by then no longer the fulcrum of a great empire but the target of pillage for the barbarian hordes, from the Goths of Alaric (410) and Vitiges (537-538), to the Vandals of Genseric (445), who cut off the aqueducts to bend the city, and finally Totila

One thousand years after its foundation, St Peter's was falling into ruin and it was Nicholas V° who renewed and began the extension of the basilica at the suggestion of Leon Battista Alberti and to a design by Bernardo Rossellino. During the Renaissance there was a new cultural and political climate in Italy and Europe, the rebuilding of Rome began (the urban situation at the time and the transformations) on the initiative of a new generation of popes who saw building works as a means of reaching the masses, whom Nicholas V, the humanist pope, saw as needing to be fascinated by grandiose spectacles.

And here is the magnificent plan of Nicholas V, the restoration of ancient monuments that could be used as infrastructures of the papal city: the Aurelian walls, the bridges, Hadrian's mausoleum transformed into a castle, some aqueducts, the reconstruction or repair of the forty basilicas that constituted the Holy Stations of pilgrimage, and finally the creation of a citadel on the Vatican hill, imagined as a holy city distinct from the profane one, beyond the Tiber communicating only through the hinge of Castel S. Angelo .

Nicholas V was only able to realise his project to a small extent. It was up to Julius II della Rovere to build the new basilica. It began with the demolition of a large part of the old church by Bramante, with the intention of constructing a building with a Greek cross plan inspired by the Pantheon.

Of Bramante's design, the central pillars were built, with the arches supporting the dome, and the spaces adjacent to the central core were set up, then work stopped for 20 years. In 1527, among other things, there was the terrible sack of Rome by the Lansquenets.
The work was then directed by Frà Giocondo , Raphael , Giuliano da Sangallo , Baldassarre Peruzzi , Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and finally Michelangelo , who took up Bramante's plan, restructuring the smaller spaces surrounding the central core and beginning the construction of the dome, which was only finished under Sixtus V in 1593 by Giacomo Della Porta and Domenico Fontana .

Under the pontificate of Paul V it was decided to restore the basilica layout with the definitive return to the Latin cross. The architect Carlo Maderno added three chapels on each side to the building and led the naves up to today's façade (begun in 1607 and finished in 1614) restored for the Jubilee of 2000 and criticised by many because, by hiding the drum, it dampens the ascending effect of the dome. The consecration of the new basilica was celebrated by Urban VIII in November 1626.

Once the great work was completed, the building of the city came to a halt, but the miraculous balance between ancient ruins and the Baroque scenery of papal Rome was such that it fascinated and enraptured the great travellers: Byron, Goethe, Stendhal .

According to ancient sources, the first circus used for chariot races in the valley between Palatine and Aventine was built by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus, although similar races are mentioned as early as the time of Romulus.

Over time, the original wooden seats were replaced by masonry steps and the starting cages for the chariots (carceres) and the spina, i.e. the dividing wall of the track, were added. Seven bronze eggs and seven bronze dolphins were installed on it to count the laps of the quadrigas, and, at different times, two obelisks in 10 BC that ofRamesses II almost 24 metres high (transported to Piazza del Popolo in 1587) and in 357 A.D. the obelisk of Thutmosis III, more than 32 metres high (placed then by Pope Sixtus V at Piazza di S. Giovanni in Laterano ). At the circus, expanded by Caesar , Augusto adds the pulvinar (imperial box or sacred area). The capacity of the building was 150,000 spectators, at least until the Neronian reconstruction (after the famous fire), which increased it to 250,000.
Later enlarged, it reaches a length of 600 metres and a width of about 200. Part of the curved southern side is currently preserved.
In 1931, near the north side, a brick building from the Imperial age was found (possibly the site of a court), which was transformed into a Mithraeum in the 3rd century A.D. (now in the basement of the former Pantanella pasta factory).

"The most beautiful remnant of Roman antiquity is undoubtedly the Pantheon. This temple has suffered so little that it appears to us as the Romans must have seen it in their time. . I believe that this immense vault, hanging overhead without apparent support, gives the fools a sense of fear; but they soon calm down and say: "It is to please me that they took the trouble to give me such a strong feeling!"

In the year 27 BC. Agrippa , Augustus' son-in-law and architect, erected the Pantheon on the site where Romulus , according to legend, 'ascended' to heaven during a ceremony. It is a common, rectangular, medium-sized temple, conceived as a place of collective worship of several deities . Over the years the temple suffered fires and other calamities, and was restored several times until the emperor-architect Hadrian rebuilt it between 118 and 128 A.D. The pronaos with its sixteen columns, the enlargement of the 'rotunda' and the concrete dome - the widest ever built in masonry - built with an avant-garde technique, are certainly Hadrian's. Hadrian wanted to remember the original architect, and restored the inscription on the pediment: '(Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the third time, built). In 608, Emperor Phocas donated the temple to Pope Boniface IV, who consecrated it for Christian worship: Sancta Maria ad Martyres , a masterpiece of Roman architecture and the first case of transformation of a pagan temple into a Christian church The temple was built on a flight of steps starting from a porticoed square lower than the present one. Originally the canopy was externally covered with gilded bronze tiles placed in scales, which were taken away in 663 by the Eastern Emperor Constant II and replaced by a lead covering in 735.

The same fate befell the bronze coverings of the portico, used to cast cannons or given by Urban Vlll to Bernini to make the canopy of St. Peter's. There were few additions to the original architecture: the ornaments of the church, the tombs of great artists (Raphael) and those of the Royalty of Italy. Bernini also erected two ugly bell towers on either side of the tympanum called 'donkey ears', which were removed at the end of the 19th century. The Pantheon also housed honorary busts that Pius VII had removed and transported to the Capitol, to the current Protomoteca (a collection of busts of famous people). Today, the absence of the cladding exposes the brick opus with the relieving arches that support the weight of the mass. The pronaos hides the view of the 'rotunda' until the entrance to the space determined by a sphere inserted in a cylinder, the finite and the infinite together. The floor is covered with coloured marbles and so are the walls supporting the dome ending in a large circular oculos - an opening 9 metres in diameter - that served to give light to the interior and as an outlet for the smoke of the sacrificial fires. The axis of the building contemplates a small deviation from the north-south orientation: every year, at 12 noon on 21 June, the summer solstice, the ray of sunlight passing through the oculos strikes the visitor entering the interior from the centre of the portal.

When Nero inaugurated the house at the end of the work, he was pleased with it, and said that at last he was living in a house worthy of a man'.

Nero, having lost the Domus Transitoria in the famous fire (64 A.D.), built the largest imperial residence in Rome, the Domus Aurea ('Golden House'), expropriating the valley between the Esquiline, Caelian and Palatine (today the valley of the Colosseum).
In these 100 hectares there are, as Suetonius says, porticoes and palaces, pavilions and baths (with sea and sulphur water), gardens, pastures, vineyards and woods 'full of all kinds of domestic and wild animals'.
Around the central pond, the commissioned architects Severus and Celeres erected buildings 'as big as cities', adorned with hundreds of statues taken from Greece and Asia Minor, and preceded by a bronze statue of Nero more than 30 metres high (the 'Colossus', which would later give its name to the Colosseum).

From Domus Aurea Only two adjacent sectors remain on the Oppio hill (incorporated into the foundations of the Baths of Trajan). They include numerous rooms, arranged around a rectangular courtyard and a polygonal recess. The best known : the rooms to the south of the great peristyle, divided into two identical flats with bedrooms, possibly the private residence of the imperial couple ("yellow vault room", "black vault room", "owl vault room" and symmetrical rooms) ; the hall overlooking the polygonal courtyard, with a famous gilded stucco decoration and mythological scenes, poorly preserved but known from Renaissance drawings ('hall of the gilded vault'); the enormous octagonal hall, with walls that are almost non-existent due to the vast openings for access to other rooms. It, together with the surrounding radially arranged rooms, constitutes a masterpiece of Roman architecture.
The pictorial decoration, much of which has been lost, is the work of at least two hands (one possibly by the famous Fabullus, a skilled painter who painted in a toga). Some paintings are of the traditional type, with subtle and fantastic architectural elements enclosing small landscapes painted in rapid brushstrokes. Others profoundly innovate the decorative system, grandly articulated with the inclusion of figures on the various shelves (the first example of the 'fourth style').

Nothing remains of the dining rooms with 'ceilings covered with movable ivory slabs and perforated in such a way as to allow flowers and perfumes to fall', and even the columns, panelling and marble floors of the rooms have been removed and reused in the baths above.
Rediscovered during the Renaissance, the Domus was visited by many artists, who reproduced the ornamental motifs of the paintings (called 'grotesques') and left their signatures graffitied on the walls.

"The Colosseum offers three or four completely different viewpoints. The most beautiful is perhaps that which presents itself to the onlooker when he stands on the arena where the gladiators fought, and sees those immense ruins rising before him all around. What impresses me most is this sky of such a pure blue that appears through the windows of the upper part of the building.

L'Flavian amphitheatre known to all as the Colosseum It is perhaps the most famous monument in the world: the gigantic elliptical construction, at 48 metres high, has impressed and fascinated people of all ages. It was certainly a favourite place of the Romans, whose unbridled thirst for gory spectacles was quenched only by the sight of the bloody gladiator fights. The Colosseum had four storeys. The first was ten and a half metres high with a Doric order of semi-columns. The second was 11.85 metres high with Ionic columns. The third was 11 metres 60 high with the Corinthian order of columns. The fourth was solid masonry with a system of poles to fix the Velarium, a large tent that served to shelter the spectators from the sun. Staircases and galleries gave access to the various sectors of the tiers of seats. In the galleries one encountered everything, vendors selling chickpeas, hot drinks and souvenirs, people renting pillows and blankets to night spectators. Looking out from the upper tiers, one could admire a spectacular view of the world's largest city. The name of the brilliant builder is unknown, perhaps Rabirio, Domitian's architect, or a certain Gaudentius. Commissioned by Emperor Vespasian to celebrate the grandeur of the Empire and inaugurated by Emperor Titus in 80 A.D., the Colosseum was built in a valley between the Esquiline, Palatine and Caelian hills by draining a small lake used by Nero for the Domus Aurea . There was no military victory, religious festival, anniversary that was not celebrated with bloody combat. About seventy thousand screaming spectators followed excitedly the gladiators who challenged each other in duels to the death: Rhaetians, with nets and tridents, against Myrmillons; Samnites, with the short sword, against Thracians, with shield and gladius. In just one of them, desired by the Emperor Trajan, and lasting for 117 consecutive days, more than nine thousand gladiators died in the arena. Incredible sets were erected on the arena in record time to make the fights more exciting, which lasted from dawn to dusk and often, lit by torches, well into the night. The bloodiest of these, the sportule, invented by Emperor Claudius, consisted of pitched fights of hundreds of gladiators all against each other where the slaughter had to be carried out in the shortest possible time. Under the arena, an inextricable labyrinth of dungeons housed gladiators and ferocious beasts. And in these infernal circles, amidst roars, screams, roars, the protagonists of the spectacle waited to emerge into the dazzling light of the arena, where a delirious public awaited them, using hoists and inclined planes for a most impressive appearance. The Colosseum is linked to the fierce persecution of Christians, which was stopped by Emperor Constantine, who in 313 A.D. banned gladiator fights and proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

Monuments of Rome - Arch of Constantine

One of the most important memorials of antiquity, the Arch of
highest and best preserved triumph in Rome.

Erected by the Senate in 315 AD, after the victory of Constantine on Maxentius at the Battle of Ponte Milvio to honour the 'liberator of the city and bringer of peace'. The reliefs that decorate it are partly the result of expolations of older arches and therefore have nothing to do with Constantine.
The monument underwent restoration work as early as the end of the 15th century, and in 1733 it underwent substantial work to complete the missing parts.The band of rectangular reliefs that runs throughout the arch is from the time of Constantine and retraces the events preceding the battle of Ponte Milvio up to the triumphal entry at Rome .
The style of the reliefs heralds the end of the great empire.

The Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli Rome is one of the oldest examples of an early Christian church in the world. Some also remember it by the name 'Basilica Eudossiana', because it was commissioned by the Empress of the same name, wife of Valentinian III.

The location is easily accessible from the area of the Roman Forum: while you are leisurely strolling along the street, admiring the symbols of imperial power, you can see a narrow staircase on the right, dedicated to St Francis of Paola, and from here make a small diversions on your itinerary to visit this striking monument of sacred architecture.

Although the church was founded in the 5th century AD, it has undergone numerous interventions over the centuries that have altered its original appearance. In the 8th century it was almost entirely rebuilt, while in the 16th century the façade and portico were rebuilt and, finally, the interior was renovated in the 18th century.

The high altar preserves for more than 1,500 years a legendary relic: the two chains used to imprison St Peter in Jerusalem. The name of the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli Rome is said to derive from these two objects that 'bound' the saint. Every year, thousands of faithful come to venerate the relics and special celebrations are held on 1 August.

The most sensational work in the complex is Michelangelo's Moses. The statue, placed in the right transept in 1545, was sculpted in 1513 as a decoration for the funeral monument of Pope Julius II, commissioned to the master Buonarroti.

The large architectural complexwhich was to constitute a mausoleum, was set aside in preference to channelling resources towards the reconstruction of St Peter's Basilica. You will undoubtedly be awed by the majesty and beauty of the figures sculpted by Michelangelo: the evident veins and tense muscles give a real and dynamic appearance to the scene.

Lesser known, but equally worthy, are the 7th century Byzantine mosaic depicting St Sebastian and the splendid crypt, located under the main altar.

An adviceDon't stop at appearances and explore the complex carefully; from the façade it may look like any other modern church, but the interior will surprise you.