Page 177 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

ESQUILINE  175

. Coronation of the VISITORS’ CHECKLIST
Virgin Mosaic
This is the central image of Practical Information
a series of wonderful apse Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore.
mosaics of the Virgin by Map 6 D4.
Jacopo Torriti (1295). Tel 06-6988 6800.
Open 7am–6:45pm daily.
5 7 =
Transport
@ 16, 70, 71, 714. v 14.
q Termini, Cavour.
Baldacchino (1740s)
Its columns of red porphyry
and bronze were the work
of Ferdinando Fuga.

. Tomb of Cardinal
Rodriguez
The Gothic tomb (1299)
contains magnificent
Cosmatesque
marblework.

. Cappella Sistina
This Sistine Chapel was built for Pope
Sixtus V (1584–7) by Domenico
Fontana and houses his tomb.

Legend of the Snow
In 356, Pope Liberius had a dream in which the Virgin told
him to build a church on the spot where he found snow.
Column in Piazza When it fell on the Esquiline, on the morning of August 5
Santa Maria in the middle of a baking Roman summer,
Maggiore he naturally obeyed. The miracle of the
1800 A bronze of the Virgin snow is commemorated each year by a
and Child was added service during which thousands of white
to this ancient marble petals float down from the ceiling of Santa
column in 1615. The Maria. Originally roses were used, but
column came from the nowadays the petals are more usually
Basilica of Constantine taken from dahlias.
in the Forum.

174-175_EW_Rome_US.indd 175 15/03/17 3:45 pm