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Italy,
Rome, St. Peter's Basilica | Rome, San Giovanni in Laterano
Professor Dale Kinney
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The
first church sponsored by Constantine was the cathedral of Rome,
now called San
Giovanni in Laterano but originally dedicated to Christ
and called "Basilica Constantiniana".
Italy, Rome, S. Giovanni in Laterano, reconstruction
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Italy, Rome, San Giovanni in Laterano, Basilica,
Plan
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Israel,
Jerusalem, Holy Sepulchre, Reconstruction
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The emperor
went on to found major churches throughout the Roman Empire,
including a basilica in Jerusalem
at the site of Christ's tomb (the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre),
and another on the site of Christ's birth in Bethlehem.
In Rome, the "Book of the Popes" (Liber
pontificalis), a sixth-century text based on earlier sources,
credits Constantine with the construction of seven basilicas:
churches inside the city at the Lateran,
where the popes would later have a palace, and in the Sessorian
palace, the residence of his mother Helena;
and outside the city over the tombs of St.
Peter, St. Paul, St. Agnes, St. Lawrence, and Sts. Marcellinus
and Peter. These cemetery churches were all on different
roads [Map: C, H, D, E, F, G], so that the city was surrounded
by large churches memorializing Rome's martyrs and marking its
entrances with monumental announcements of the strong Christian
presence inside.
Italy, Rome, Map, from R. Krautheimer, Three Christian
Capitals |
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To illustrate
the early Christian basilica I have chosen St. Peter's, which—although
it was not the first of Constantine's churches—was by far
the most important in the west. Due to the prestige of Peter
as the disciple to whom Christ gave "the keys of the kingdom
of heaven," as the "rock" (Matthew 16, 13–20)
[Reference text pop up below], upon whom Christ founded the
church on earth the basilica over Peter's grave was emulated
by power-seeking bishops and abbots throughout Europe, especially
in the Carolingian
period, guaranteeing that the basilica would be the universal
type of church architecture in the west. St. Peter's was seen
and experienced directly by millions of medieval people, as
it was the destination of European pilgrimage for the whole
middle ages, and remains so today. When St. Peter's was torn
down in the 16th and 17th centuries, its height and length determined
the size of the Renaissance basilica that replaced it, and parts
of Constantine's basilica survive in the ornament of the present
building.
New St. Peter's
taly,
Rome, New St. Peter's, Exterior view
of the facade |
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Italy,
Rome, New St. Peter's, Interior view
of the nave looking east |
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Drawings
from the Heemskerck
sketchbook showing the Vatican
during construction of New St. Peter's Basilica on the same
site as the Constantinian basilica
Italy,
Rome, St. Peter's, Heemskerck drawing (attr.)
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Italy,
Rome, St. Peter's, Heemskerck drawing (attr.) |
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taly,
Rome, St. Peter's, Heemskerck
drawing (attr.) |
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Although
the pope's palace was initially on the other side of Rome, at
the Lateran, a residence at St. Peter's was established by the
sixth century. By the eighth century this second palace in the
Vatican was part of a large complex of buildings for guests
and pilgrims. In the ninth century it was enclosed by a defensive
wall, and became a separate papal "city" (the "Leonine
City", after Pope
Leo IV (844–855) who built the wall; now Vatican City)
distinct from Rome.
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