List of the four Papal Basilicas of Rome, itinerary including St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, Basilica of San Paolo outside the walls and Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Four Papal Basilicas of Rome
There St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican it was rebuilt on the ancient Constantinian Basilica dating back to the 4th century, erected on the burial site of San Pietro.
The works for the construction of the current Basilica began in 1506 on a project by Donato Bramante, who was succeeded by Raffaele Sanzio and Baldassare Peruzzi.
After Raphael's death and the sack of Rome, the work was carried out by Antonio da Sangallo the younger.
Subsequently took over the genius of Michelangelo Buonarroti, who began work on the grandiose dome, then completed by Giacomo della Porta.
After 1602 the direction of the factory was entrusted to Carlo Maderno, and in 1626 it was finally consecrated by Pope Urban VIII.
Inside the Basilica we can distinguish the grandiose bronze canopy almost 29 meters high made by Bernini, Michelangelo's Pietà, the tomb of Clement XIII of Canova, and the mosaic of Giotto's Navicella.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was also entrusted with the construction of the square in front of the Basilica.
The Papal Basilicas, besides San Pietro are San Giovanni in Laterano, San Paolo outside the walls and Santa Maria Maggiore, all characterized by a Holy Door and a Papal Altar.
The oldest and most important is the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, built on land donated by the emperor Constantine to the Bishop of Rome in the year 314, under the pontificate of Pope Miltiades.
The Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, consecrated in the year 324 by Silvestro I, over the centuries has undergone various destructions and reconstructions up to the current building dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thanks to the work of the architects Domenico Fontana and Francesco Borromini, while the facade completed in 1735, was built by Alessandro Galilei.
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Adjacent to the Basilica, the Lateran Palace, which has been the Papal See for many centuries, is part of a single complex comprising the Baptistery, the Basilica, the remains of the medieval Papal palace with the Scala Santa and the Papal Chapel Sancta Sanctorum.
Near the Scala Santa there is the Triclinio Leonino and in the square opposite stands the Lateran Obelisk.
There Basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura it is located along via Ostiense, outside the Aurelian walls, near the left bank of the Tiber.
The Basilica was erected on the site where the apostle Paul was buried after suffering martyrdom.
The apostle's tomb is located under the main altar, and since the eighth century it has been kept by the Benedictine monks of the adjacent Abbey of San Paolo outside the walls.
The entire complex is an extraterritorial airline of the Holy See.
The history of the Basilica begins in the year 324 under the Pontificate of Sylvester I, when the emperor Constantine had a church built on the site where there was a Roman necropolis, which has been used continuously since the first century BC. to the third century AD, and sporadically reused even in later periods, where the Christian Lucina possessed a sepulchral area in which the mortal remains of the apostle Paul were laid.
In 386 the Emperors Theodosius, Arcadius and Valentinian II entrusted the work to the architect Cyriad for the construction of a new and grand Basilica.
The new Byzantine structure church differed from the previous one not only in size, but also in the opposite orientation.
The building was modified under the Pontificate of Gregory the Great in the years 590-604 and under the Pontificate of Pope Sixtus V in the years 1585-1590.
Rebuilt after being largely destroyed by fire in 1823, the transept with the ciborium made by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1285 and some mosaics were saved from the late fourth century Basilica.
After restoration, demolition and reconstruction work, on 10 December 1854 Pope Pius IX consecrated the current Basilica of San Paolo outside the walls.
There Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore it is also known by the names of Santa Maria della Neve and Basilica Liberiana, named after the founder Pope Liberius.
Located on the Esquiline hill, of early Christian architecture, the Basilica was built by Pope Sixtus III between 432 and 440, in honor of Maria Madre di Dio, dogma sanctioned by the Council of Ephesus in 431, on a previous church commissioned by Pope Liberius , built on the land where it miraculously snowed on the morning of August 5th.
The event is linked to a dream in which the Virgin Mary appeared to Pope Liberius and at the same time to a wealthy patrician named Giovanni, telling them to build a chapel in the place that she would miraculously indicate.
Still today every year, on 5 August, the Miracle of the Snowfall is commemorated, with a moving celebration that involves a descent of white petals from inside the dome.
In the Basilica, mosaics with stories from the Old and New Testaments date back to the fifth century, while the transept is from the Middle Ages.
In addition, various interventions and enrichments have been carried out over the centuries, including the Sforza Chapel, designed by Michelangelo, the external apse, designed by Carlo Rainaldi, and the main facade, carried out between 1741 and 1743 on a project by Ferdinando Fuga, while the Pauline Chapel was built between the years 1606 and 1612 at the behest of Pope Paul V.
It should be noted that in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the first nativity scene made with statues, commissioned in 1288 to Arnolfo di Cambio by Pope Nicholas IV, is preserved, as early as the fifth century there was a cave of the Nativity, where pilgrims from the Holy Land brought as a gift the fragments of wood from the Holy Cradle, now kept in a display case.
