Anyway, yesterday was a pretty interesting day in general; I had a site visit to San Clemente, which is this old church, built on the foundations of an old church, which took over an old Pagan church. Whew, talk about history. The Pagan church dates back to the 1st century, so about 2000 years, and the church that took it over was in use for mainly the 5th-11th centuries, with repairs and remodels in between. How do we know this? The foundation has been excavated, and with some arrangement, you can head under there and see the old church as it was back in its use over 1,000 years ago, with frescoes at least that old, alters, monuments, and everything in between.
One preface to this, however: pictures are dim since cameras were not allowed, but I still managed. No harm with no flash, I mean, it harms no more than eyesight does, right? But they're not the greatest, so for that, I apologize.
Anyway, we met up and went through the modern church (more on that later) to reach the stairs underground to the musty, humid excavations. It was awesome to go down to the Pagan area, which had been flooded after a while, but later drained by building an underground canal to the Colosseum (yes, that one). We went down to the natural spring in there and saw all the old walls, and it's pretty amazing to think about 2,000 year old worship sites (even if I've seen twice as old, thanks Egypt).
From there, we went back up a different flight of stairs to arrive into the main chamber of excavations, which were of the original St. Clemente church. The church's patron saint, St. Clement, was one of the first Popes, and his coronation as Pope is displayed in the excavations prominently. He was believed to be the first Pope after Peter for a long time, but they eventually accepted there were a few in between. He was very popular in Roma, however, and his martyrdom is part of his mystique, as he was thrown into the ocean with an anchor around his neck
by Emperor Trajan in Rome at the end of the 1st century. He had anchor symbols dedicated to him everywhere in the church too, which upon further review had a lot of symbolic impact.There was also a fresco of a Roman man who came from a rich family, gave it all up, moved away, and came back home and asked his father--concealing his identity--if he could be spared a place to stay as a beggar. The father said yes, and his son lived in poverty under a staircase in his father's house, and after his death, his family saw a letter revealing his identity and they were heartbroken, but the fresco detailed all of this. Pretty cool for about 1,000 year old painting without any preservation for 800 years.
After hearing about several frescoes, we popped back up into the current St. Clement church, which was really interesting to see. Huge mosaic apse, much like others I've posted about, and a very ornate ceiling that actually is so big it covers a bit of the top part of the apse if viewed from the congregation's seating. Quite the cool church, and it's weird to really see the similarities and
know what a lot of the styles symbolized having studied this for a few months now. I feel like I actually know something about art history now, what a concept!From there I just had to rush back to class, but I passed by the Colosseum, the Forum, The Arch of Constantine, and Piazza Venezia, which just made me laugh. I mean, I'm in a rush and hurrying by some of the most famous monuments in all the world, literally just feet from me, actually walking through part of them to get back. Just cool to think about.
I made it back to class in time and during my 3 hour gap, I came home and made lunch, but I regret it slightly, as it started to rain slightly and I needed to walk half an hour or so to make it to class. It looked like it was going to be pretty light, so I just got a hooded sweatshirt and walked to class. Mistake #1, that was. I got soaked on the walk as it got worse and worse, and the crappy umbrellas that the street vendors sold (and they come out of the woodwork on rainy days, like instantly) were so terrible I wasn't about to pay for them, but I got soaked. Just drenched, through my clothes, and I had 2 hours of class to sit through after that.
Luckily, however, it subsided on my walk home and I only got mildly wet. But today on our walk to class and my walk back home, it rained both times, though I was more prepared today for its insanity, equipped with jacket and two people who had umbrellas, so we were set. It reminded me a lot of home, with the rain and all, and I still have my Northwest blood, so I was never cold and I never complained, as rain's a part of life. I was slightly irritated though, as I don't want to be wet in class.I took a few pictures though of my walk, just because it's always beautiful, but with the dark skies I thought it looked especially looming and beautiful. So I'll post a few on here like the one to the left, and the one you'll see below.
That's really about it though. Terrible lightning and thunder aside, it's been pretty uninteresting today. I have a site visit tomorrow, which takes up all day, but beyond that, just work this weekend. Have a great one everybody, and until next time,
Ciao.
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