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Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano |
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When most
visitors of Rome think of the Pope, they think of Vatacan Cith. But, not to
be missed is the Basilica of St. John Lateran (Basilica di San Giovanni
in Laterano). This is the cathedral of the church of Rome and the
official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope. It is
the oldest in the city and ranks first (being the cathedral of Rome) among
the four major basilicas of Rome, and holds the title of ecumenical mother
church (mother church of the whole inhabited world) among Roman Catholics.
An inscription on the façade, Christo Salvatore, dedicates the
Lateran as Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour, for the cathedrals of all
patriarchs are dedicated to Christ Himself. As the cathedral of the Bishop
of Rome, containing the papal throne (Cathedra Romana), it ranks
above all other churches in the Roman Catholic Church, even above St.
Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The official dedication of the Basilica and the adjacent Lateran Palace was presided over by Pope Sylvester I in 324, declaring both to be Domus Dei or "House of God." In its interior, the Papal Throne was placed, making it the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. In reflection of the basilica's primacy in the world as mother church, the words Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput are incised in the main door, meaning "Most Holy Lateran Church, of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and head." |
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The square in front of the Lateran Palace has a red granite obelisk, the largest in the world, erected by Thutmose III in Karnak. It was removed to Rome by Constantius II in 357 and re-erected in the Circus Maximus. Sixtus V had it re-erected in 1587 on its present site.
The façade as it appears today was completed in 1735. Galilei's façade however removed all vestiges of traditional ancient basilica architecture, and imparted a neo-classical facade. Of the façade by Alessandro Galilei (1735), the cliché assessment has ever been that it is the façade of a palace, not of a church. Galilei's front, which is a screen across the older front creating a narthex or vestibule, does express the nave and double aisles of the basilica, which required a central bay wider than the rest of the sequence; Galilei provided it, without abandoning the range of identical arch-headed openings, by extending the central window by flanking columns that support the arch, in the familiar Serlian motif. By bringing the central bay forward very slightly, and capping it with a pediment that breaks into the roof balustrade, Galilei provides an entrance doorway on a more-than-colossal scale, framed in the paired colossal Corinthian pilasters that tie together the façade in the manner introduced at Michelangelo's palace on the Campidoglio.
Every pope from Miltiades occupied the Lateran Palace until the reign of the French Pope Clement V, who in 1309 decided to transfer the official seat of the Catholic Church to Avignon, a papal fief that was an enclave within France. During the Avignon papacy, the Lateran Palace and the basilica began to decline. Two destructive fires ravaged the Lateran Palace and the basilica, in 1307 and again in 1361. In both cases, the Avignon papacy sent money to their bishops in Rome to cover the costs of reconstruction and maintenance. Despite the action, the Lateran Palace and the basilica lost their former splendor.
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When the
Avignon papacy formally ended and the Bishop of Rome again resided in Rome,
the Lateran Palace and the basilica were deemed inadequate considering the
accumulated damage.
The popes took up residency at the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere and later at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Eventually, the Palace of the Vatican was constructed, and the papacy moved in; the papacy remains there today. Pope Sixtus V tore down the original Lateran Palace and basilica and commissioned replacements. The rebuilt Lateran Palace and the Basilica became separate entities. Today the Lateran Palace is home to the Pontifical Museum of Christian Antiquities. There are six papal tombs inside the basilica: Alexander III (right aisles), Sergius IV (right aisles), Clement XII Corsini (left aisle), Martin V (in front of the confessio) by Simone Ghini I ; Innocent III (right transept); and Leo XIII (left transept), by G. Tadolini (1907). The latter was the last pope not to be entombed in St. Peter's Basilica. |
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An apse lined
with mosaics and open to the air still preserves the memory of one of the
most famous halls of the ancient palace, the "Triclinium" of Pope Leo III,
which was the state banqueting hall. The existing structure (illustration,
below left) is not ancient, but it is possible that some portions of the
original mosaics have been preserved in the three-part mosaic of its niche:
in the centre Christ gives their mission to the Apostles, on the left he
gives the keys to St. Sylvester and the Labarum to Constantine, while on the
right St. Peter gives the papal stole to Leo III and the standard to
Charlemagne. Some few remains of the original buildings may still be traced
in the city walls outside the Gate of St. John, and a large wall decorated
with paintings was uncovered in the eighteenth century within the basilica
itself, behind the Lancellotti Chapel. A few traces of older buildings also
came to light during the excavations made in 1880, when the work of
extending the apse was in progress, but nothing was published of real value
or importance.
Some portions
of the older buildings still survive. Among them the pavement of medieval
Cosmatesque work, and the statues of St. Peter and Saint Paul, now in the
cloisters. The graceful baldacchino over the high altar, which looks so
utterly out of place in its present surroundings, dates from 1369. The
stercoraria, or throne of red marble on which the popes sat, is now in
the Vatican Museums. It owes its unsavoury name to the anthem sung at the
papal enthronement, "De stercore erigens pauperem" ("lifting up the
poor out of the dunghill", from Psalm 112). |
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 Photo by Jim Bruner |
 Photo by Jim Bruner |
Additional information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_St._John_Lateran
**NOTE: All of the photos on this page were taken by Jim Bruner. Photos may be reproduced, however; if used for commercial purposes (including any print media or on the internet), please credit with the following: Photo by Jim Bruner and provided courtesy of www.gettingaway.com.
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