In a previous post, I have already explained that the Palazzo Nuovo was designed by Michelangelo but only built in the second half of the seventeenth century by father Girolamo and son Carlo Rainaldi. The palazzo currently serves as the left wing of the Capitoline Museums. The entrance to the…
The Capitoline Hill, usually simply called “the Capitol”, has been inhabited for at least 3,500 years. According to the authoritative Atlas of Ancient Rome, a stable settlement came into existence here during the Middle Bronze Age, around 1600 BCE.[1] When in about 750 BCE this settlement was merged with the…
I have many travel guides about Italy. Almost all of them contain information about Bologna, but remarkably not a single one of them discusses the cathedral of the city. Apparently the Duomo of Bologna is fairly unknown and frequently skipped by tourists, which may have contributed to the common misconception…
Just a stone’s throw away from the cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano, one can find one of the most curious pieces of architecture in the streets of Rome. The Triclinium Leoninum consists of a brick aedicule with an apse and a colourful apse mosaic. At first glance, the mosaic…
I have procrastinated the gargantuan task of writing a post about the Santa Maria Maggiore for far too long. I have mentioned this major basilica several times now in other posts, and have visited it at least half a dozen times. The church is one of four major basilicas in…
In January 2017, I returned to the San Paolo fuori le Mura, one of the five papal basilicas in Rome.[1] I had previously visited the basilica in 2011 and was eager to see it again. The San Paolo is the third most important church in the city, preceded only by…
The Santa Croce in Gerusalemme is an old Roman Catholic church that is just within the third century Aurelian Walls of the city. The church is architecturally and culturally rather unimpressive, but it is very important from a religious point of view. There has been a Christian place of worship…