San Giovanni in Laterano: The Mother of All Churches
Why is it significant?
Stand back far enough to take in the whole facade, a vast wall of white travertine topped by fifteen colossal statues, Christ in the centre and the saints on either side, each one about seven metres tall.
Key Facts
| Place | San Giovanni in Laterano: The Mother of All Churches |
|---|---|
| Address | Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano 4, 00184 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.88580, 12.50560 |
| Part of Walk | Rome in Layers: The Quiet Celian Hill, San Clemente & the Lateran |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand back far enough to take in the whole facade, a vast wall of white travertine topped by fifteen colossal statues, Christ in the centre and the saints on either side, each one about seven metres tall. Under them, the Latin inscription makes an enormous claim: this is the mother and head of all the churches of the city and of the world.
Most visitors assume that the pope's cathedral is Saint Peter's. It is not. It is this one. San Giovanni in Laterano is the cathedral of Rome, the seat of its bishop, and it was the first great church Constantine ever built, dedicated around 324. For about a thousand years the popes lived right next door, until they left for Avignon in the fourteenth century.
Now the layer underneath. Before 312, this ground was the barracks of the emperor Maxentius's mounted bodyguard. That year Constantine beat Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, and the horse guards fought on the losing side. Constantine disbanded them, razed their barracks, and built his church on top. So the mother of all churches stands, quite literally, on the ruins of a defeated army.
Go inside and look at the great bronze doors of the central entrance. They are ancient Roman doors that once closed the Senate House in the Forum, moved here in the seventeenth century. The nave beyond is the work of Francesco Borromini, who remodelled it for the Jubilee of 1650, wrapping the old columns in huge piers with niches for giant apostles. And in the Lateran palace next door, in 1929, Mussolini and the Holy See signed the treaty that created Vatican City.
A church built by an emperor, on a ruined barracks, with the doors of the Senate and the walls of a baroque genius. Layers again. Every year on the ninth of November, the whole Catholic world celebrates the dedication of this building, a birthday party for a church. For the final stop, turn your back on the facade and cross towards the old city walls. Just to the left of the modern gate, an older one sits sunk deep below the road.