Page 447 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

ROME : FUR THER AFIELD  445

The original was moved to the
Vatican Museums in 1790.
The sanctity of Constantia is
somewhat debatable. Described
by the historian Marcellinus as
a fury incarnate, constantly goad-
ing her equally unpleasant
husband, Hannibalianus, to
violence, her canonization was
probably the result of some
confusion with a saintly nun
of the same name.
7 Via Appia Antica
MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, designed by Zaha Hadid @ 118, 218.
4 MAXXI (National in a stole of gold and a violet The first part of the Via Appia
Museum of 21st robe. Tradition has it that she was built in 312 BC by Appius
Century Arts) appeared like this eight days Claudius Caecus. In 190 BC,
after her death holding a white
when it was extended to the
Villa Guido Reni 4A. Tel 06 320 19 54. lamb. On 21 January, two lambs ports of Taranto and Brindisi, the
@ 53, 217, 910. v 2. Open 11am– are blessed in the church and a road became Rome’s link with
7pm Tue–Sun (to 10pm Sat). vestment called a pallium is its empire in the East. It was the
Closed 1 May, 25 Dec. 7 0 - = woven from their wool, to be route taken by the funeral
& (free up to age 14). 9 given to a new archbishop. processions of the dictator Sulla
∑ fondazionemaxxi.it (78 BC) and Emperor Augustus
(AD 14), and it was along this
Along with the nearby Parco road that St Paul was led as a
della Musica (see p449), MAXXI, prisoner to Rome in AD 56.
the National Museum of 21st The church of Domine Quo
Century Arts, has put Rome Vadis marks the spot where
on the contemporary arts St Peter is said to have met
map. Completed in 2009, it is Christ when fleeing Rome. The
located in a stunning building road is lined with ruined family
designed by architect Zaha Apse mosaic in Sant’Agnese, showing the tombs, decaying monuments
Hadid. The museum showcases saint flanked by popes and collective burial places
emerging Italian and inter- (columbaria). Beneath the fields
national artists. An impressive on either side lies a maze of
amount of space is also given 6 Santa Costanza catacombs, including those of
over to architecture. San Callisto and San Sebastiano.
Via Nomentana 349. Tel 06 862 054
56. @ 60, 82, 90. Open 9am–noon,
5 Sant’Agnese fuori 3–6pm daily (Sun pm only). Closed
le Mura late Oct–late Nov. & 7 8
This circular church was built
Via Nomentana 349. Tel 06 862 054 56.
@ 60, 82, 90. Open 8am–7pm daily. in the early 4th century as a
Closed late Oct–late Nov. & to mausoleum for Emperor
catacombs. 7 8 Constantine’s daughters,
Constantia and Helena.
Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura was The dome and its drum are
built in the 4th century above supported by an arcade that
the crypt of the 13-year-old rests on 12 magnificent pairs of
martyr St Agnes, and although granite columns. The encircling
much altered it retains the ambulatory has a barrel-vaulted
form of the original basilica. ceiling decorated with the
According to legend it was world’s earliest surviving
founded by Constantine’s Christian mosaics, which date
daughter Constantia, who was from the 4th century.
cured from leprosy after In a niche on the far side of
sleeping beside Agnes’s tomb. the church is a replica of
In the 7th-century apse Constantia’s ornate porphyry
mosaic, St Agnes appears as a sarcophagus, carved with Cypresses lining the Roman road,
bejewelled Byzantine empress cherubs crushing grapes. Via Appia

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