Joanne's long walks: Via Romea Germanica: Epilogue - the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome

Back in Rome for the annual meeting of Accoglienza Pellegrina, an association of volunteers who serve as hospitaleros in pilgrim hostels operated on a pay-what-you-can donation basis, I stayed in Rome for a few extra days after the weekend gathering was over and joined Rita, a fellow hospitalera whom I met in Ravenna, and her friends Franco and Noris to make the rounds of the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome: the "giro delle sette chiese".

Copper engraving of the Seven Churches of Rome by Antoine Lafréry (from Speculum romanae magnificentiae, 1575)

"Fare il giro delle sette chiese" is an Italian expression for when you have to travel a long way or go through a lot of hassle in order to accomplish something. But the expression has historic origins in a custom introduced by Saint Filippo Neri in 1553, in which pilgrims arriving in Rome continued their pilgrimage with a tour of the city touching upon seven churches honouring early Christian martyrs, walking a total of 25 kilometres. An annual group pilgrimage of the seven churches was also organised, during which the pilgrims were provided with a simple picnic of bread, wine, cheese, eggs, apples and salami served in the gardens of the Mattei family's villa, with entertainment provided by singers and musicians. This pilgrimage and picnic was intended to provide a good, upright Christian alternative to the bawdiness of springtime carnival celebrations in 16th-century Rome.

The churches included in the itinerary were, and still are, as follows:

- Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter’s)

- Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Basilica of St. Mary Major)
- Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano (Basilica of St. John Lateran)

- Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura (Saint Lawrence outside the walls)
- Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Basilica of The Holy Cross in Jerusalem)
- Basilica di San Sebastiano all’Appia Antica (Basilica of Saint Sebastian outside the walls)
- Basilica di San Paolo fuori le mura (Basilica of Saint Paul outside the walls)

Having already been to St. Peter's twice in the last ten days - upon arriving in Rome on October 22nd and again with the hospitaleros of Accoglienza Pellegrina on Saturday, November 1st - I began directly with the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, just around the corner from where I was staying at the home of Alessandro, the hospitalero with whom I volunteered for a week in the pilgrim hostel in Valpromaro in April. My friends and I did not walk the most direct route connecting the seven churches (which I found on Wikiloc at this link), but added some "bonus churches" that we happened to run into along the way, and assorted side trips to other locations (such as a visit to the graves of great Roman film stars of the past). Here's a recap of our itinerary of two and a half days in Rome, with details of each of the seven pilgrimage churches and of various other sights we stopped to see along the way, somewhat reductively identified in this list as "distractions".

Pilgrimage church #1: Basilica di San Pietro

See previous post, and the internet for information on history, artworks, etc.... Way too much to write about here!

Pilgrimage church #2: Santa Maria Maggiore

I began my tour of the remaining six pilgrimage churches of Rome at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning. The reason for the early start? When I walked past the church on Sunday afternoon, the line-up outside the door went all the way around the block! Santa Maria Maggiore is particularly popular among visitors to Rome at the moment because it contains the tomb of Pope Francis.

A tombstone will presumably be carved, but for the moment the Pope's grave is marked only with a simple cross, the name Franciscus, and two white roses. More touching than any funerary monument! 💛

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is the oldest Marian sanctuary in Rome, rebuilt in honour of the Virgin shortly after the Council of Ephesus proclaimed Mary the Mother of God in the year 431 and consecrated during the papacy of Sixtus III (432 - 440). The church contains a relic of the crib of the Christ child, brought there in the time of Pope Theodore I (640–649). The architectural style is that of an ancient Roman basilica, which in Imperial Rome was not a church but a large public building serving multiple functions, typically built alongside the forum. The magnificent fourth-century mosaics of the nave and triumphal arch depict scenes from the life of the Virgin and of Christ and episodes from the Old Testament.

Distraction #1: Basilica di Santa Prassede

If the line-up to pass through the security check and enter Santa Maria Maggiore is too long, you can go around the corner and visit the Basilica di Santa Prassede instead. And even if you get into Santa Maria Maggiore without queuing, you should make a side trip to Santa Prassede as well! The unassuming exterior down a dark alley offers no hint of the splendours within this ancient and richly decorated church.

The church of Santa Prassede in its current form and location was commissioned by Pope Hadrian I around the year 780 to house the bones of St. Praxedes and St. Pudentiana. The two daughters of St. Pudens, who is traditionally considered St. Peter's first Christian convert in Rome, were sentenced to death for the crime of providing early martyrs with a Christian burial, in defiance of Roman law. The church was built above the remains of the 4th-century Roman baths owned by Pudentiana's family. Between 817 and 824, Pope Paschal undertook a campaign of recovering the bones of early Christian martyrs from the catacombs and moving them to the church. Pope Paschal also hired a team of professional mosaicists to complete the work in the apse, the apsidal arch, and the triumphal arch.

Distraction #2: San Pietro in Vincoli

Rebuilt in the years 432–440 over even older foundations, and subsequently reconstructed several times, the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli houses the relic of the chains that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem during the episode referred to as the "Liberation of Saint Peter", kept in a reliquary under the altar.

The church is best known as the home of Michelangelo's Moses, completed in 1515: the centrepiece of the tomb of Pope Julius II.

Distraction #3: Basilica di San Clemente

The Basilica of San Clemente is an absolutely amazing building incorporating multiple levels from different ages:

- the present basilica, built just before the year 1100;

- beneath it, a 4th-century basilica, converted from the home of a Roman nobleman, part of which had in the 1st century briefly served as an early church. In the 2nd century, the basement of the house was used as a mithraeum, a temple to the god Mithra; at some point in the 4th century, it was filled in with stones and rubble to permit the construction of the church above. In the twelfth century, the 4th-century church was in turn filled with stones to serve as the foundations of the new church constructed on top of it;

- below the home of the Roman nobleman are the foundations of a republican-era villa and warehouse destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64, during the rule of the Emperor Nero.

Pilgrimage church #3: San Giovanni in Laterano

The Archbasilica of San Giovanni in Laterano is the cathedral of the city of Rome and the seat of the bishop of Rome (the Pope). Though located within the city of Rome, it and the adjoining Lateran Palace, which was the primary residence of the popes until the Middle Ages, are the property of the Vatican, and enjoy extraterritorial status with respect to Italy under the 1929 Lateran Treaty signed by Pope Pius XI, King Victor Emanuel III and Mussolini.

Neglected during the years in which the papacy was transferred to Avignon, the Lateran basilica and palace were heavily damaged by fire in 1307 and again in 1361. In the late 16th century Pope Sixtus V had the basilica rebuilt to plans by Domenico Fontana; further renovations were conducted in the early 18th century, adding the Baroque statues of the twelve apostles and a new façade.

Not being a fan of grandiose Baroque architecture, I found the best part of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano to be the medieval cloister: the only surviving remnant of a Benedictine monastery that once served the basilica. The largest cloister in Rome, it was built in the 1220s to 1230s in a style falling somewhere between Romanesque and Gothic, featuring the Cosmatesque style of geometric decorative inlay stonework characteristic of the Cosmati family of mosaic artists, who were active in Rome between the 12th and 13th centuries.

Distraction #4: Santa Scala

The Santa Scala or Holy Stairs are located just across the road from the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. Traditionally held to be the flight of stairs from the palace of Pontius Pilate, climbed by Jesus on his way to trial and brought to Rome around the year 326 by St. Helena, the 28 white marble stairs are now encased in wood to protect them from wear caused by pilgrims ascending on their knees over the centuries. The faithful climb the stairs on their knees to redeem their souls from purgatory, reaching the Sancta Sanctorum containing a number of holy relics at the top, originally a private chapel of the popes.

Martin Luther climbed the steps on his knees in 1510, repeating the Lord's Prayer on every step, but could not suppress his doubt when he reached the top, exclaiming "Who knows whether this is true?" While Charles Dickens had no doubts about the matter, claiming in 1845: "I never, in my life, saw anything at once so ridiculous and so unpleasant as this sight."

No photography is allowed at the Santa Scala.

Pilgrimage church #4: Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

Built around the year 325 over an Imperial Roman villa to house relics of the Passion of Christ brought to Rome from the Holy Land by Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine I, the basilica is called "in Jerusalem" because its floor was supposedly sprinkled with a handful of soil from the holy city, so that it is considered in a sense to be located in Jerusalem.

The basilica was declared a titular church by Pope Gregory I in 523, and despite its location on the outskirts of Rome, it became a popular pilgrimage destination thanks to the popularity of the relics it contained. Pope Gregory II restored the basilica in the 8th century, and in the 12th century Pope Lucius II gave it a Romanesque appearance, with a nave, two aisles, a belfry, and a porch; the Cosmatesque pavement dates from this period. The basilica was further modified in the 16th century.

The large statue of Helena over the main altar was created by adapting an ancient statue of the Roman goddess Juno found at Ostia, while the vault was repainted in the 18th century by Corrado Giaquinto.

Distraction #4: Verano monumental cemetery

The next church on our list was closed until four in the afternoon, so while waiting for it to reopen, we took a side trip to the cemetery next door. Verano is Italy's second-largest cemetery, covering 83 hectares of land, so it is impossible to see it all in a single visit; we concentrated on locating the graves of a handful of famous Roman film stars close to the entrance.

Pilgrimage church #5: Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le mura

Upon entering the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the first thing we noted, to the left of the door, was another tomb, sculpted by Giacomo Manzù: the tomb of Alcide de Gasperi, the politician and statesman who founded Italy's Christian Democrat party and served as prime minister in eight successive coalition governments between 1945 and 1953.

But the most important tomb in the basilica is that of St. Lawrence, martyred in the year 258 and buried in the Roman necropolis on the Via Tiburtina. Emperor Constantine I built a small shrine on the site, and Pope Pelagius commissioned the construction of a church in the 580s. The current church was built in the 13th century under Pope Honorius III, who is also buried there, incorporating the original church and its 6th-century mosaics in the sanctuary and adding a new nave with Cosmatesque floor mosaics.

Pilgrimage church #6: Basilica di San Sebastiano fuori le mura

The most distant point on the itinerary of the seven churches is the Basilica of San Sebastiano, built on top of the catacombs of the same name. To get there, we convened in the square beside San Giovanni in Laterano on the second day of our tour and walked from the church out to the Aurelian walls built around the city of Rome between A.D. 271 and 275, following a pedestrian and cycling path beside the walls to the city gate known to the ancient Romans as Porta Appia, now Porta San Sebastiano.

Porta San Sebastiano

Joining the Via Francigena

Here we joined the Via Francigena, first stage south of Rome, following the ancient Roman Appian Way: the first Roman road built specifically to transport troops out of Rome, connecting the city with Brindisi since 312 B.C. The road was of strategic importance for the Roman conquest of southern Italy, overcoming the previously insuperable barrier of the malaria-infested Pontine Marshes.

Construction of the road began by creating a leveled dirt path, over which small stones and mortar were laid. This base was covered with gravel, and finally topped with tightly fitting interlocking stones to create a flat and durable surface, cambered in the middle to allow water to run off and flanked by ditches on either side, protected by retaining walls. These layers of the road bed had a total depth of about one and a half metres. The Via Appia Antica includes what is still the longest stretch of straight road anywhere in Europe: a 62-kilometre-long straight line.

We walked an extra kilometre or so along the Via Appia Antica to reach the part where the original Roman paving stones of volcanic rock are still visible; the first section of the road, up to the church of San Sebastiano and for about a kilometre beyond, has been overlaid with smaller cobblestones, added at various times since the 16th century and repaved in the 19th century for the convenience of vehicle traffic, at first horse-drawn and then motorised.

And here comes the hitch: believe it or not, the first five kilometres of the Via Appia Antica are open to motor vehicle traffic! 😫I would definitely recommend timing your walk on the Via Appia Antica - whether you are starting the Via Francigena of the south, walking the seven churches, or just going for a stroll - to coincide with a Sunday or a public holiday. On these days the road is closed to traffic, while on regular working days (including Saturdays), the first five kilometres of the ancient Roman road are dangerously busy with fast-moving traffic - including not only private vehicles but tour buses, as well as cavalcades of dark blue official government cars with smoked glass windows, complete with police escort on motorcycles. In some sections there are no sidewalks at all, only tall walls on either side of the road, making any escape from the traffic impossible. The vehicles make an infernal racket speeding over the cobblestones, and drivers interpret the absence of white or yellow lines on the road as complete freedom to drive wherever they want, and pass each other whenever so inclined.

Walkers be warned: take bus number 118 as far as the church of San Sebastiano, or wear high visibility clothing and walk in single file, unless it's a Sunday!

Dodging traffic on the Via Appia Antica

Having survived the dangers of the Via Appia on a working day, we finally reached the Basilica built in honour of Saint Sebastian, a 3rd-century Christian martyr who, as everyone knows, was killed by shooting him full of arrows. - Or was he?

As a Roman soldier who secretly converted to Christianity at the time of the Diocletian persecutions, Sebastian had a tough life. When his beliefs became known in the year 286, he was sentenced to be tied to a post or tree and filled with arrows by the very soldiers who had been under his command; it is in this pose that Sebastian is commonly depicted in art. But in actual fact the arrows did not kill him: left for dead in the forest, Sebastian was found and cared for by a pious widow named Irene, who nursed him back to health. Refusing to give up his religious faith, Sebastian stubbornly returned to Rome to warn the Emperor Diocletian of the error of his ways. He was rewarded for his efforts by being beaten with clubs and thrown, still alive, into the cloaca maxima, where he finally drowned.

A man drowning in a sewer is not a subject congenial to artistic representation, and so Sebastian is conventionally depicted in the attitude of his "first martyrdom", "as full of arrows as an urchin is full of pricks", according to the Legenda Aurea. Another pious woman, Lucina, had a dream in which the saint disclosed to her the location of his body, which she retrieved and buried in the catacombs. The bodies of Saints Peter and Paul - also martyred in Rome - were also temporarily buried here in a Basilica Apostolorum ("Basilica of the Apostles") built by Constantine I in the first half of the 4th century. The remains of the apostles were later transferred to the two basilicas carrying their names, and the church was rededicated to St. Sebastian in the 9th century. The church we see today was built in the 17th century, and contains the only representation of Christ sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the 1679 Salvator Mundi, which the great sculptor created at the age of 82; it was rediscovered in the adjacent convent in 2001, and is now displayed in a glass case inside the church.

The basilica also contains the Domine quo vadis, the supposed footprint of St. Peter, formed on the spot where he stopped in his tracks while fleeing Rome and certain death, presented with a vision of Christ. To Peter's question "Where are you going, my Lord?", Jesus replied "To Rome, to be crucified again," and Peter understood that it was his fate to return to Rome and face crucifixion. The Domine quo vadis chapel is built on the spot where Peter turned around, while the Basilica of San Sebastiano contains his supposed footprints - though I doubt they would pass the inspection of a modern podiatrist.

While at the church of San Sebastiano, we couldn't miss the opportunity to descend into the catacombs underneath. Admission costs ten euros, by guided tour only, and is definitely worthwhile to understand more about this amazing concentration of history and spirituality. No photographs are allowed - and anyway, it's pretty dark in there! Not recommended for the claustrophobic.

Distraction #5: ancient Roman sites along the Via Appia Antica

Continuing a kilometre or two further along the Via Appia Antica - from this point forward practically free of traffic - we not only experienced walking on the original Roman lava paving stones but took the opportunity to visit a couple of sights along the way. The palace, circus and mausoleum of Maxentius is an open, freely accessible archaeological area, the estate of the Emperor Maxentius, adapted from an earlier, more rustic country villa belonging to the senator Herodes Atticus and his wife Appia Annia Regilla. Recreated in a video at the site, these three characters present themselves and the estate, which is currently undergoing restoration work aimed at making the site more welcoming and informative for visitors.

Inside the mausoleum

Just a little further up the road is the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, built in the first century B.C. in honour of Caecilia Metella, daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, a consul in 69 BC, and wife of Marcus Licinius Crassus, who served under Julius Caesar. The mausoleum was incorporated into the Cateani family's castle in 1302-1303.

It's easy to find your way from San Sebastiano to the last of the seven churches, San Paolo: just follow Via delle Sette Chiese all the way!

Pilgrimage church #7: Basilica di San Paolo fuori le mura

The basilica was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I to mark the burial place of Paul of Tarsus, where his followers had erected a cella memoriae after his execution. This first basilica was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in the year 324. In 386, Emperor Theodosius I began erecting a much larger and more beautiful basilica with a nave and four aisles with a transept, probably consecrated around 402 by Pope Innocent I, though work on the basilica, including the mosaics, was not completed until the pontificate of Leo I (440–461), when extensive work was required following a fire that destroyed the roof. At that time, the church was larger than the old Saint Peter's Basilica. Damaged by an earthquake in 801 and then by Saracen raids, the basilica was fortified by Pope John VIII, forming a town called Johannispolis, which was however destroyed by another earthquake in 1348. Restored in the 18th century, the church burnt down almost entirely in 1823, after which it was rebuilt with the addition of a neoclassical façade.

After the fire of 1823

The neoclassical colonnade

13th-century paschal candlestick

13th-century cloister

As in the case of San Giovanni in Laterano, my favourite part of the church was the cloister, built between 1220 and 1242, accessible for only three euros, with a ticket that also includes a visit to a small museum containing reliquaries, ceremonial robes and a display case of artefacts from Jubilees since the 17th century.

Having successfully completed the tour of the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome and taken the metro back to the city centre, we celebrated with evening mass at the church of Santa Prassede and dinner at Vecchia Roma, a trattoria decorated entirely in the colours of the Roma football team and frequented by colourful personalities!

Epilogue to the epilogue

The following morning, I had a couple of hours to kill before my train, and as my host Alessandro lives literally a block away from the station, I had no worries about getting there on time! So Alessandro took me for a walk around the neighbourhood, stopping at some of the lesser-known sights in the Esquilino neighbourhood, i.e. southwest of Roma Termini train station:

- The Church of Sant'Alfonso all'Esquilino, a rare example of neo-Gothic architecture in Rome designed by the Scottish architect George Wigley and built between 1855 and 1859, featuring an unusual mosaic of Jesus sitting on a rainbow. 😁 🌈

- The Church of San Martino al Monte, beneath which excavations have revealed an ancient Roman villa. The excavated layers are open to visitors and include such fascinating details as ancient mosaic floors, fading medical frescoes, graffiti written when the structure was used as an underground air raid shelter during World War II, and the footprints of an ancient Roman dog that walked over the tiles before the clay had set - more than two thousand years ago!

- The Church of San Vito, again built on top of Roman ruins, below which are traces of the oldest walls built around the city of Rome in the sixth century before Christ, with the city gate and the paving stones of the Roman road that ran through it, an aqueduct and a well, and numerous assorted architectural elements, presented by the archaeologist who uncovered them. Now retired, Carlo spends his days by the doorway to the excavations, welcoming visitors and showing them around.