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Home > Italy Travel Guide > San Paolo fuori le mura Travel Guide

San Paolo fuori le mura Travel Guide

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Introduction
History
Location

ATTRACTIONS

Interior
Apse

USEFUL INFORMATION

Links

Introduction

Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura ? known in English as the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls or St Paul-without-the-Walls ? S. Paolo fuori le Mura is located outside the ancient walls of Rome. It is one of five churches considered to be the great ancient basilicas of Rome. Unlike most of Rome's basilicas, which have three aisles, S. Paolo is a five-aisled church. Eighty granite columns separate the four side aisles from the central nave. Above the columns are mosaic portraits of all 263 Popes, with only the current Pope's portrait illuminated. Currently, there are only eight vacant spots left for Popes and tradition states that when space runs out the world will end.Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, named in 2005, is the current archpriest of this basilica.

History

After his execution, St Paul was buried in a cemetery at this site, about two kilometres from the city walls by the road to Ostia. A shrine, or cella memoriae, was soon erected, and many early Christians came to venerate the Apostle. The first church here was, according to the Liber Pontificalis, built by Emperor Constantine and consecrated on November 18th 324. It was a small church, built over the grave of St Paul.

In 386, Emperor Theodosius I began the erection of a much larger and more beautiful basilica, but the work including the mosaics was not completed till the pontificate of Leo I. The Christian poet Prudentius describes the splendours of the monument in a few, expressive lines. As it was dedicated also to Saints Taurinus and Herculanus, martyrs of Ostia in the 5th century, it was called the basilica trium Dominorum “basilica of three lords”.

In 883, the walls and tower encircling the church were completed. This was knows as the “Johannipolis” (in Italian Giovannipoli), or “City of John” after Pope John VIII (872-882), and was built to protect the church from Lombards and Saracens. The defence works were tested in 1083-1084, when they withstood several attacks by Emperor Henry IV.

Fire broke out in 1115, and Pope Innocent II (1130-1143) had a wall with columns built in the transept to support the unsafe roof. The transept was divided into two aisles by this wall.

The graceful cloister of the monastery was erected between 1220 and 1241. The sacristy contains a fine statue of Pope Boniface IX. In the time of Gregory the Great there were two monasteries near the basilica: St. Aristus's for men and St. Stefano's for women. Services were carried out by a special body of clerics instituted by Pope Simplicius. In the course of time the monasteries and the clergy of the basilica declined; Pope Saint Gregory II restored the former and entrusted the monks with the care of the basilica.

The popes continued their generosity toward the monastery; the basilica was again injured during the Saracen invasions in the 9th century. In consequence of this Pope John VIII fortified the basilica, the monastery, and the dwellings of the peasantry, forming the town of Joannispolis, which was still remembered in the 13th century.

Of the ancient basilica there remain only the interior portion of the apse with the triumphal arch and the mosaics of the latter; the mosaics of the apse and the tabernacle of the confession of Arnolfo di Cambio belong to the 13th century. In the old basilica each pope had his portrait in a frieze extending above the columns separating the four aisles and naves.

Reconstruction
In 1823 a fire, started through the negligence of a workman who was repairing the lead of the roof, resulted in the destruction of the basilica. Alone of all the churches of Rome, it had preserved its primitive character for 1435 years. The whole world contributed to its restoration. The Viceroy of Egypt sent pillars of alabaster, the Emperor of Russia the precious malachite and lapis lazuli of the tabernacle. The work on the principal facade, looking toward the Tiber, was completed by the Italian Government, which declared the church a national monument. The interior of the walls of the nave are adorned with scenes from the life of Saint Paul in two series of mosaics.

Location

186 Via Ostiense Piazzale San Paolo (Metro: Basilica San Paolo)
Metro: San Paolo (line B); Bus: 23, 123, 170, 223, 673, 707, 766.

Interior

The church is entered by way of a colonnaded forecourt which leads into the porch (19th century mosaics high up on the facade), with the Holy Door, on the inner side of which can be seen the old bronze door, cast in Constantinople in the 11th century. The interior of the church is dark, since the alabaster windows admit little light. The nave (120m/395ft long, 60m/195ft wide and 23m/75ft high) is divided into five aisles by a forest of 80 columns leading up to the triumphal arch (fifth century mosaic), the altar with its ciborium and the apse (mosaics). High up on the walls of the church are 265 portrait medallions of all the Popes from Peter onwards.

Apse

Apart from the 13th century mosaics by Venetian artists, commissioned in 1220 by Honorius III, which were extensively restored, the decorations in the apse, including the Bishop's throne, are copies dating from the 19th century. Particular features which should not be missed are the ciborium (by Arnolfo di Cambio, 1285) over the Papal altar which, like the altar in St Peter's, probably marks the spot where the Apostle was buried; a magnificent medieval Easter candlestick, 5m/16ft high, to the right of the altar; and the Chapel of the Crucifix and the baptistery. In the sacristy is the entrance to the cloister of the Benedictine abbey, decorated with mosaics by the Vassalletti family (1204-41). The variety of form of the columns and the color of the mosaics make this one of the most attractive cloisters in the West.

Links

Satellite Photo of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

San Paolo fuori le mura entry from “Guide to the Churches of Rome”

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