San Clemente
Nowhere else in Rome can give such a clear idea of the city’s layering and millennia of cultural riches than this wonderful church. The very lowest level remains largely unexplored, dating back to Republican Rome, probably the 2nd century BC. At the deepest excavated level there are 1st-century AD buildings, including an early house of Christian worship and a temple dedicated to the Persian god, Mithras. Above that is a partially intact 4th-century AD basilica. When that edifice was burned in the Norman sacking of 1084, the space was filled in and a new church was built, using some of the original architectural elements. In 1857, the Irish Dominican prior, Father Mullooly, accidentally discovered the lower church and began the long process of emptying out the rubble.
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Church GuideYou can usually enter both through the balconied front gate or by a side door, off the small piazza on Via di San Giovanni in Laterano. The entrance to the Lower Church and archaeological areas is through the sacristy vestibule, where you’ll also find books, slides and attractive postcards of the two churches and the Mithraic temple’s works of art. The 1st-century alleyways beneath are no place for claustrophobics, but the refreshing sound of the underground spring down below may provide some relief. |
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Top 10 Features
Apse Mosaic
Few images are more joyous than this 12th-century variation on the tree-of-life, in the Upper Church. Plump cupids, winsome animals and lush foliage evoke a new-found Paradise. The stone and glass squares were taken from a similar work in the destroyed 4th-century church below it.
Legend of Sisinius Frescoes
These frescoes in the Lower Church relate how a wealthy pagan, Sisinius, was struck deaf and blind for suspecting his Christian wife of infidelity. St Clement cures him but incurs his wrath and Sisinius’s furious commands are the first known inscriptions in Italian.
Mithraeum
The triclinium, with its platforms along both sides, was used for ritual banqueting, where the male-only congregation imitated the gods’ last meal before they re-ascended to heaven. The altar painting shows Mithras slaying the Cosmic Bull to bring about Creation.
St Catherine’s Chapel
The restored frescoes in the Upper Church by the 15th-century Florentine artist Masolino show vibrant scenes from the life of St Catherine of Alexandria. These provide one of the few opportunities in Rome to appreciate the painting of the early Florentine Renaissance.
Miracle of San Clemente Frescoes
These frescoes in the Lower Church show how St Clement saved a boy from drowning.
1st-century BC Domus
This mansion belonged to a man named Clemens, perhaps a relative of an early Christian martyr and of St Clement, or perhaps a freed man of Jewish birth. The 4th-century church was built precisely over the 1st-century site.
Courtyard and Façade
The original entrance was through the quadroporticus, the medieval colonnaded square forecourt. The fountain and the scrolled façade were added in the early 18th century.
