Back in Roma Roma Roma

Ciao tutti, I hope your week is starting off nicely; mine was a bit jarring to start off with. Yesterday was Monday and it came fast after such an amazing weekend. It was definitely difficult to transition back into school mode, but luckily we started off the wee with a site visit for my 9am class, and we went to go see two of the four major basilica in Roma for our studies of the early Medieval Roman art and architecture, which is predominately--if not totally--Christian.

In Roma, there are as I said 4 major Basilica: Basilica di San Pietro (or St. Peter's, located in the Vatican City, you know, the place with the huge dome that I post pictures of all the time? Yeah, that one), Basilica di San Giovani Lateran (or St. John the Lateran's, located to the East of Termini station), Santa Maria Maggiore (or Saint Mary's Major Basilica, dedicated to the blessed virgin Mary), and San Paulo fuori le Mure (Saint Paul's outside the walls, located, as the name would suggest, just outside the walls of Rome, but still on the Metro line, thank goodness). I have now seen three of the four, and St. John the Lateran is next week, so I will have seen them all. Woohoo.

We had to take the Linea B Metro (aka the Metro of Death due to its incredibly crowded morning commuters) to get to Saint Paul's outside the walls. St. Paul was, as many of you know, the apostle who went to Rome, as described in the Bible. St. Peter never was officially stated in the Bible that he came, but I digress. Paul, a Roman Citizen, was condemned to death for being a Christian in Rome before the Edict of Milan made it legal to be Christian in Roma. His church is a funerary one, and you were not allowed to be buried within the walls of the city unless you were incredibly powerful and/or important, both of which Paul was not at his death.

So, he was buried just outside the walls, and they built a church around his tomb, which was done in the exact same way as the original St. Peter's, or the Vatican Church, in the 5th Century. St. Peter's was knocked down to build the current Basilica in the 1500s, but St. Paul's was the same until the 19th century when a fire burned it mostly to the ground, but they reconstructed it with the same diminsions and with many of the same materials salvaged from the wreckage, so it's still mostly accurate in its diminsions.

We arrived and came through a few collumns to get into the courtyard, which has you can see above, is pristine and beautiful with a Statue of St. Paul in the center, right in front of the door to the Basilica's interior. He's holding a sword, signifying he was beheaded for his beliefs, and if this statue looks familiar to you at all (it did to me, but I live here, so no worries if it doesn't), it's because a very similar statue is just outside St. Peter's, where I visited on my first days here in Rome. Cool story.

We went inside and the decoration was resplendent, as usual. There were roundels, or round portraits, to every pope ever on the interior, even including John Paul II and the current Benedict XVI. It's funny to see them all up there, starting with the unofficial first Pope, St. Peter (I say unofficial since he wasn't referred to as "Pope," that term wasn't invented for centuries, but I digress).

The most striking things about the Basilica are 3: the Byzantine Door, the Alter, and finally, the Apse. The Byzantine Door was donated by the Amalfi family in the 11th century, and has carvings of several really important Christian scenes in it, and it's hanging inside now for preservation's sake. I don't know which picture to post on here, a close up one of detail, or the entire thing, but if there is demand, I'll post them both.

The alter was also very interesting. There is a (not kidding) 17 foot candle on one side that is only lit on Easter, but it's pretty cool. It's so dark there as there is limited lighting and difficult to take pictures, but it looks a lot like the alter in St. Peter's (if you need refreshing, go and check out my album on the Vatican on my Picasaweb. Or don't, it's up to you, just trying to give a little context). The alter is literally just over

The apse, however, was the coolest I've seen to date. Brilliant with gold and intricate with detail, it really was something that inspires awe. You see it from the entrance, looming over the alter, far from you but still imposingly large. The picture is dark and not really showing the size, but just imagine Christ being about 20 feet tall and you'll see just how impressively large the apse is. There are several important Christian characters, like Mary and Paul, along with others more obscure. But it's cool, and I think I may be writing a research paper on the Apses I'm seeing as for some reason, I find them riveting, and I really want to see more of them and mark their progression, and I have to write a paper on something along those lines anyway, so hey, why not right?

But yes, from there we went out into this little monk garden as it's also a Monastery, although not a Trappist Monk one like in Northern Europe. Supposedly they make some really awesome beer . . . anyway, I am getting off the point. There is this adorable little garden where the monks can go and converse and discuss monk-things, and it's very peaceful, I could've stayed for a quite a while, but we had to make it over to Santa Maria Maggiore still, so we booked on out of there to the Metro.

From the Metro, we went to S.M.M, which is dedicated to Mary and is the largest church in Roma for her and is the central focus of the parade of the Icon of Jesus to his mother during the Jubilee. It's huge and resplendent, as it is wont to be, and the interior has mosaics and another awesome apse. The exterior first, however, was just like you'd expect: marble and gargantuan. The picture enlarged shows it a bit better, and it's tough to explain just how huge it is.

Then, the interior.

It was huge as well, and I really wanted to get some good photos, but it's just a little too dark for it, which is a shame. I got a few good ones though, and I'll post them for your viewing pleasure. The mosaics, like this one over here, is really pretty cool, but hard to see just how little each little piece of it is, it's really pretty fantastic to see such intricacy in them, from facial expressions to awesome scenes laid out in colorful detail, they really are a wonder at over, yes, 1500 years old, I mean, wow.

The apse, again, was gold and intricate, and it's not original, but it was 12th century. By then, artists had begun using size and space for increased effect, and the apse was designed in a way that apparently gives it away as 12th century. I wouldn't know that by myself, but my professor did and now I do too. And I guess you do as well, so now we're all awesome and knowledgeable about Roman Art and Architecture! You're welcome!

I had class for most of the rest of the day, including walks to and from home again for Science and Religion, but after I got back, I started feeling not so hot, and ended up with a migraine, but I went to bed early and got about 9.5 hours of sleep, so that made me feel pretty chipper early on, I must say. Italian went by fast and I felt really alert, but I'm tired once again now and just going to take it easy and do some reading I do believe. I hope you have a great week and I'll update more soon. Let me know if you like the history or not, since I'll do more of it or avoid it.

Until next time,

Ciao