The Cathedral of Rome

Contrary to poular belief (which wants it to be St. Peter's), the church of San Giovanni in Laterano (St. John Lateran) is the cathedral of Rome

Perhaps the most notable thing about this massive, basilican church is as an answer to the Roman trivia trick question: What's the cathedral of Rome? (Hint: It's not St. Peter's, which is merely a holy basilica on Vatican property.)

The cathedral of Rome is oddly one of the least interesting of the city's grand churches. San Giovanni in Laterano has an illustrious history—

founded by Constantine

himself as the first Christian basilica in Rome in AD 314, and the model for all Christian basilicas—but after going through some seven cycles of destruction and rebuilding (due to fires, earthquakes, barbarians, or simple wholesale remodeling), today's basilica is primarily a

Borromini

construction of the 1640s—and even parts of that were destroyed and had to be restored following a 1993 bombing.

The massive

facade

by Alessandro Galilei is made of stacked porticoes with a line of colossal saints, apostles, and Christ standing along the top. The gargantuan interior (230 feet long) has a unified decorative scheme designed by Borromini and a fine medieval

Cosmatesque floor.

On the aisle side of the first pillar on the right is a fresco by the proto-Renaissance genius

Giotto

(all that survives of a series of frescoes the master painted here in the early 14th century). The scene shows Boniface VIII proclaiming the first Jubilee Holy Year on this spot in 1300.

The

cloisters

off the left transept are a peaceful oasis amid the bustle of Rome, a quadrangle of twisty columns inlaid with Cosmati stoneworks and the walls lined with fragments from earlier incarnations of this cathedral.

Across the street from the cathedral and to the left a bit is a small chapel-like structure housing the Scala Santa, a staricase of 28 steps of Tyrian marble that legend holds were the actual staircase of Pilate's house, which Jesus descended after being condemned. The same legend holds that St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, brought them back from a relic-gathering trip to the Holy Land (she also managed to return with the Ture Cross). Only the devout are allowed to climb the Holy Staircase, and only on their knees. (At the top of the stairs is the lovely Sancta Sanctorum, a private papal chapel with 13th century frescoes you can barely glimpse through the grating, plus a painting of Christ said to have been started by St. Luke and finished by an angel; it does, at least, date to the 4th century, though it's been retouched many, many times, not always by angels.)

Piazza di S. Giovanni in Laterano
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