BASILICA DI SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE

It is one of the four great basilicas known as "patriarchal" with St. John Lateran, St. Peter's Vatican and St. Paul's Outside the Walls. Since the Lateran Agreement in 1929, these four buildings are part of the Vatican State. It is an imposing basilica, able to accommodate large crowds. The building is open on all sides, with a large square in front of the façade (Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore) and an even larger square in front of the apse (Piazza dell'Esquilino). The entrance is on the side of Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. The eighteenth-century façade is the work of Ferdinando Fuga, a late Baroque architect close to Fransceco Borromini. Fuga built it on a previous facade without erasing the mosaics of the thirteenth century, the work of Filippo Rustici, which tell the dream of Pope Liber: an exceptional event would have marked this place. Indeed, on August 5, 358, snow fell on the Esquiline and, on this snow, Pope Liber drew the perimeter of the new church. Still today, every August 5th, the miracle of the snow is celebrated in Rome and artificial snow is dropped on the square in front of the basilica. Quite impressive when you know how hot it can get in Rome in August! The present basilica dates back to the^5th century, its construction is linked to the Council of Ephesus of 431 which proclaimed Mary, mother of God. The church was so desired by Pope Sixtus III. When you enter, the effect is grandiose, you can still admire the columns and the ancient capitals of the central nave. The ceiling is gilded with gold leaf: it is the first gold brought back from the Americas that Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Spain offered to Pope Alexander VI, better known as the Borgia Pope. On the floor, the superb marble pavement is the work of the Cosmas, a famous family of marble masons of the 12th and 13th centuries.

36 mosaic panels run along the walls of the central nave: among the most precious in Rome, they date back to the^fifth century. They illustrate scenes from the Old Testament. In the apse, on the other hand, later mosaics of the thirteenth century represent episodes related to the life of Mary, work of Jacopo Torriti(Coronation of the Virgin). The eighteenth-century baldachin in red porphyry is the work of Ferdinando Fuga. On the steps to the right, Bernini's tomb looks quite modest next to the heavily decorated funeral chapel of Pauline Bonaparte (to theleft of the choir).