The northeast side of town is an area I have not explored very much so I decided one morning after breakfast to take the metro out there and then walk to three places I've never visited; the Mausoleum of Constantia, Santa Agnese Fuori Le Mura and San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura.
The mausoleum of Santa Costanza is a mid 4th century building built for the daughter of Constantine, Constantia (Costanza in Italian). It is circular in shape and includes a barrel-vaulted ambulatory supported by 12 pairs of Corinthian columns whose ceiling is covered in mosaics. This building shows its roots; the construction style and materials as well as the artistic influence of the mosaics is clearly Late Antiquity.
These photos show the barrel vaulted ambulatory ceiling (a five shot panorama) and a detail of a mosaic in an alcove. It is a very interesting style; Christianized pagan. The dome ceiling was at one time also covered in mosaic but various "restorations" resulted in that work of art being completely destroyed.
I'd like to learn more about this building but there doesn't see to be all that much on the web about it.
According to the Catholic Church's Liber Pontificalis (the book of the Popes), the original church on this site was built into a catacomb that held the remains of Saint Agnes, who was martryed in Domitian's stadium (now Piazza Navona). The church in that piazza - Santa Agnese in Agone - commemorates her martyrdom; this church was built over her catacomb grave. In the 7th century a new church was built. In the ver early 17th century the hillside was cleared out. Today as you approach the church you can see remnants of the catacomb on the right side - the wall there has fragments of markers embedded in it. The church has been renovated several times since it's construction, but the mosaic in the apse has remained; it dates from 625. This church was also built with a separate upper gallery for women, similar to San Lorenzo. Apparently the entrance to the remaning catacombs of Saint Agnes is inside but I didn't see anything that indicated that.
Fascinating place, this one. Originally two separate chruches that were eventually combined together, the older portion is in the rear. It was constructed in the 4th century by digging out a catacomb that held San Lorenzo's grave. The front portion was originally a 5th century church. They were combined in the early 13th century. They don't quite align, the front church is kinked to the left a little bit. The front has a portico design, the campanile was built in the 12th century.
The interior includes a triumphal arch covered with mosaics from the 6th century. Of possible iconographic interst is the fact that Pelagius II (the Pope who sponsored the creation of the mosaic) is depicted without a halo (square or round). See my book, "Rome Explorations: The Early Christian Rome Tour" for more info on why that is interesting. The figures depicted are Sts Lawrence and Stephen, the Apostles Peter and Paul and the Roman martyr St Hippolytus. All but the figures of St Lawrence and the Pope have been restored over the centuries. In the rear of the church is the entrance to the Catacombs of St Cyriaca and Hippolytus, which are apparently never open. Like a few other really early chuches in town this one has a separate gallery for women; this feature went out of style fairly early on, though because it is only the first structure (the one in the rear) that has it. The second church doesn't.
On July 16th, 1943 a bomb from an Allied plane hit the front of the church and destroyed the entire front. The church now sits at the edge of a huge cemetary, the Campo Verano.
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