The patriarchal Basilicas – ANTIQUORUM HABET

The look of St. Paul’s outside the walls before the fire of 1823

admin — Wed, 18 May 2016 10:31:29 +0000

More than 130 m long, over 60 m wide and featuring five naves, the Basilica of Saint Paul was the biggest Roman basilica built under Constantine. It retained this layout until its reconstruction in the nineteenth century, after it was destroyed by fire in 1823. The seventeenth century engraving by Giacomo Lauro shows the outside of the Basilica with the wide quadriporticus in front of the fore façade.

Map of ancient Vatican

admin — Wed, 18 May 2016 10:29:06 +0000

In Roman times, at the Ager Vaticanus outside the Aurelian walls between the Monti Vaticani and the right bank of the Tiber, Caligula had a large circus built. Nero later improved it by adding marble stepped seating and the large obelisk that today stands in the centre of St Peter’s Square. This was the area where the apostle Peter was buried. Three centuries later, Emperor Constantine commissioned a large Basilica to be built in his honour on this very spot.