Basilica of San Clemente
During this tour, which lasts about two hours, I'll tell you a story, two thousand years long, which took place just a few steps from the Coliseum.
The current basilica was built in the XII century and is well worth a visit, because it is full of masterpieces (such as the apsidal chapel and a series of frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino). But the basilica holds many more secrets below the current level.
After descending the stairs in the right aisle, you enter another church, built in the fourth century. Driving along the maze of underground tunnels found during excavations, we will know the story of a consul who was martyred under the Emperor Domitian and his servant, who became Pope, he was exiled to Crimea and also became a martyr.
We will discover the legend of the discovery of the tomb of Clement by the inventor of the Cyrillic alphabet. In addition to that, we will be faced with a medieval fresco containing one of the first inscriptions in the vernacular, with other frescoes which remind us of the Byzantine world. Then a fascinating mitreo and underground traces of Roman buildings, which were destroyed by the great fire of Nero. In the meanwhile we can listen, at first in the distance, then in an ever clearer, to the sound of the rushing of an underground river, more than 10 meters deep in the bowels of the earth.
Details
2 hours
hypogeum
entrance ticket not included
