Uncover the secrets of Rome’s Scala Santa at the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano
One of the most important churches in Rome is the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. It is the Papal Archbasilica and has a cloister, the Lateran Palace, and the famous Scala Santa, which leads to the Sancta Sanctorum.
All the churches in the world look to him as their leader. This is the basilica dedicated to the Most Holy Savior, Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. It is better known as the Lateran Basilica, which comes from the name of a noble Roman family, the Laterani, who owned land here in the first century AD. The Laterans’ land was confiscated by the imperial state, and in the third century, Septimius Severus built the second barracks here to house the equites singulares, which means “unique horses.”
The History of the Basilica
We know that the house was owned by a person named Fausta in the fourth century. Fausta may have been the second wife of Emperor Constantine, who in 313 made Christianity legal with the famous Edict of Milan. These people gave the land of the Lateran to Pope Melchiades so that he could build a place of worship that met the needs of the church, which was becoming more powerful at the time.
Pope Sylvester I dedicated the first basilica to the SS. Savior in 318 or 324. It was about the same size and shape as the current one.
From this point on and for about a thousand years, the popes and their court lived in the Lateran residence, or Partiarchio, which was built next to the church. St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist, on the other hand, were honored much later, in the 9th and 12th centuries.
The basilica was beautifully decorated when it was first built, but so-called “barbarian” invaders often destroyed and stole from it, so it has been fixed and fixed up many times over the centuries. The works that Pope Boniface VIII commissioned for the first great jubilee in 1300 are some of the most important. Cimabue and Giotto were asked to decorate the new Loggia delle Benedizioni, which has since been lost.
When the popes finally went back to Rome after being held captive in Avignon at the end of the 1300s, it was decided to move the papal seat to the Vatican, keeping only the basilica in the Lateran and letting the Patriarchate slowly fall into disrepair, to the point where Pope Paul III suggested tearing it down to get tiles and beams for the church in the early 1500s.
From 1600 on, the great Francesco Borromini rearranged it, first with the help of Pope Innocent X and then with the help of Pope Alexander VII. It was Borromini who also moved the bronze doors of the ancient Curia from the Church of Sant’Adriano to the Roman Forum, which are now the Basilica’s main door. But the facade by Alessandro Galilei won’t be finished until 1700, and the last major changes won’t happen until a century later, during the pontificates of Pius IX and Leo XIII. However, the last change was made in 2000, when the sculptor Floriano Bodini’s new Porta Santa was opened.
The visit to the cathedral
Inside, the church has a basilica shape and ends with a large apse. The beautiful multicolored mosaics in the apse stand out, with the cross of Christ in the center, surrounded by saints, and the face of the Savior in a clypeus, surrounded by angels.
In the central nave, the statues of the holy apostles and prophets were put in the niches that Borromini made in the 1700s. Each statue was made by a different artist. Above these are pictures of six stories from the Old Testament and six stories from the New Testament.
These stories were chosen based on those from the time of Constantine. On the other hand, all of the oval prophets were painted holding an open scroll with a short text that hinted at a mystery about Christ’s life.
The frieze above them is made up of many symbols that, even though they were made in the 1600s, show a very old base: doves with olive branches in their beaks (which have been a common symbol of cemeteries for a long time), crossed palms, and candelabra with laurel festoons.
Instead, the minor naves have a number of chapels of different shapes and sizes. These chapels are dedicated to different saints and were built over time by famous artists. Inside the basilica, there are a lot of graves and memorials, as well as a lot of relics that make it important to people.
For example, the heads of the apostles Peter and Paul are still kept on the Gothic canopy above the papal altar. On the other hand, the wooden altar is still there under the tabernacle. This is where the first popes would have led mass. At the head of the left arm of the transept is the Altar of the Sacrament, which has four bronze columns from the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem or possibly from the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the Capitoline hill.
Above the tympanum, a piece of the table where Christ had the Last Supper has been kept.
The Cloister
The Basilica is finished off by the beautiful ancient cloister, which Vassalletto fixed up in 1200, and the nearby Baptistery, where Constantine may have been baptized, even though a nymphaeum, which is a large fountain, was already there in earlier times.
Even though it looks like it did in the 1600s, it still has some of its original shape. In the middle is a green basalt urn that was used for immersion baptism and is now covered in bronze. Around it are four old chapels, with the one for John the Baptist being the most interesting.
In fact, the ancient bronze doors, which are made of many different materials and are very heavy, turn on their hinges and make a sound like the pipes of an organ.
Domenico Fontana built the Lateran Apostolic Palace in place of the Patriarchio at the end of the 1500s. At first, it was used as an alternative and, most importantly, as the popes’ summer home.
Scala Santa and Sancta Sanctorum
The Scala Santa is a set of stairs that lead to the chapel of the Popes, which is now right in front of the Basilica and is called the Sancta Sanctorum. It is one of the most important places for Christians.
Popular devotion and a recent decree from the Holy Penitentiary say that the 28 steps should be walked on their knees to honor the Passion of Christ and get indulgences. This is because it is thought that this is the same staircase that Jesus walked on the day he died and that Saint Helena brought to Rome in 326 AD.
Even now, San Giovanni in Laterano is the most important church in Rome and the seat of its diocese. As such, it is directly under the control of its bishop, which is the pope, who came here at the start of his pontificate to take over his office.
Useful information for visiting the Basilica of S. Giovanni in Lateran
Entry to the church is free.. Every day, the Basilica is open from 7 to 18:30, the Cloister from 9 to 18, and the Basilica’s museum from 10 to 17:30. The Baptistery is open from 7 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Sacristy is open from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 4 Holy Masses are held at different times of the day.
