Page 174 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

172  ROME AREA B Y AREA

romana) by the 17th-century
French artist Gaspare Dughet,
Poussin’s brother-in-law, in the
right aisle. The frescoes by
Filippo Gagliardi, at either end
of the left aisle, show old St.
Peter’s and the interior of San
Giovanni in Laterano before
Borromini’s redesign. If you can
find the sacristan, you can go Reliquary with St. Peter’s chains
beneath the church to see the
remains of Equitius’s house. the Mamertine Prison (see p93)
were subsequently taken to
Constantinople. In the 5th
Fresco of old San Giovanni in Laterano in 2 San Pietro century, Empress Eudoxia
San Martino ai Monti in Vincoli deposited one in a church in
Constantinople and sent the
1 San Martino Piazza di San Pietro in Vincoli 4A. other to her daughter Eudoxia
ai Monti Map 5 C5. Tel 06-9784 4950. in Rome. She in turn gave
@ 75, 117. q Cavour, Colosseo.
Viale del Monte Oppio 28. Map 6 D5. Open 8am–12:30pm & 3–7pm hers to Pope Leo I, who had
this church built to house it.
Tel 06-478 4701. @ 16, 714. (Oct–Mar: until 6pm) daily. 5 7 = Some years later the second
q Cavour, Vittorio Emanuele. According to tradition, the chain was brought to Rome,
Open 7:30am–noon & 4–7pm daily.
5 7 two chains (vincoli) used to where it linked miraculously
shackle St. Peter while he was with its partner.
Christians have been worship- being held in the depths of The chains are still here,
ping on the site of this church displayed below the high altar,
since the 3rd century, when but the church is now best
they used to meet in the house known for Michelangelo’s
of a man named Equitius. Tomb of Pope Julius II. When it
In the 4th century, after was commissioned in 1505,
Constantine had legalized Michelangelo spent eight
Christianity, Pope Sylvester I months searching for perfect
built a church, one of the very blocks of marble at Carrara in
few things he did during his Tuscany, but Pope Julius
pontificate. In fact, he was so became more interested in
insignificant that in the 5th the building of a new
century a more exciting life St. Peter’s and the project
was fabricated for him – was laid aside. After the
which included tales of him pope’s death in 1513,
converting Constantine, Michelangelo resumed
curing him of leprosy, work on the tomb, but
and forcing him to close had only finished the
all pagan temples. Pope statues of Moses and
Sylvester’s fictional life was The Dying Slaves when
further enhanced in the 8th Pope Paul III persuaded him
century, with the forgery of to start work on the Sistine
a document in which Chapel’s Last Judgment.
Constantine offered him Michelangelo had planned
the Imperial crown. a vast monument with over
Pope Sylvester’s church 40 statues, but the tomb
was replaced in about that was built – mainly by
AD 500 by St. Symmachus, his pupils – is simply a
rebuilt in the 9th century, facade with six niches
and then transformed for statues. The Dying Slaves
completely in the 1630s. are in Paris and Florence,
The only obvious signs of its but the tremendous
age are the ancient Corinthian bearded Moses is here.
columns dividing the nave The horns on Moses’s head
and aisles. The most should really be beams of
interesting interior features light – they are the result
are a series of frescoed of the original Hebrew from
landscapes of the countryside the Old Testament being
around Rome (campagna Michelangelo’s Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli wrongly translated.

US_172-173_EW_Rome_US.indd 172 15/03/17 4:20 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v1.9)
Date 20th August 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm