Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano

The Basilica of San Clemente reveals three layers of Rome: a twelfth-century church above a fourth-century basilica, with a Roman house and Mithraeum beneath.

Why it matters

The present basilica was built by Pope Paschal II from 1108, above a church damaged in the Norman sack of 1084. It preserves an apse mosaic of the Triumph of the Cross, a marble choir reused from the earlier church and a Cosmatesque floor. The fourth-century basilica below contains medieval frescoes dated from the eighth to eleventh centuries. Beneath that level are rooms of a first-century Roman building and a Mithraeum with a marble tauroctony altar. The lower basilica is also associated with Saint Cyril, apostle of the Slavs, whose burial is dated to the ninth century.

What to notice

The upper basilica's apse mosaic depicts the Triumph of the Cross with vine scrolls and a river of paradise below the Trinity. The marble choir incorporates carving reused from the earlier church. In the Chapel of Saint Catherine, frescoes by Masolino da Panicale depict the saint's life. The fourth-century basilica preserves the Legend of Sisinno fresco, dated 1084–1100; its inscriptions are among the early evidence for written Italian vernacular. In the lowest level, the Mithraeum's altar bears the tauroctony relief, the bull-slaying scene associated with the cult of Mithras.

Context and history

A fourth-century church dedicated to Clement stood here before 385 and hosted church councils in the fifth century. The Norman sack of 1084 devastated the quarter. From 1108, Paschal II's basilica was built over the remains, preserving the earlier church below. In the early eighteenth century, Carlo Fontana reworked the façade for Clement XI and incorporated ancient granite columns in the portico. Excavations by the Irish Dominican community exposed the lower levels and their successive archaeological phases.