The miracle of snow

The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore is a wonderland of mosaics in Rome, Italy

This is the greatest, and by far best preserved, of Rome's four basilican churches. It marks the city skyline with

Rome's tallest bell tower,

a graceful 14th-century addition. The main

facade

is a baroque mask that uses arcades and loggias to partially hide the fantastically mosaicked earlier facade from 1294–1308.

Often, you can climb a set of stairs to view these

incredible mosaics

from up close, including scenes that recount the legend that this basilica was founded in the 350s by Pope Liberius, who had a vision of the Madonna one night in August telling him to raise the church on the spot and along the outlines that would be demarcated by a miraculous snowfall the next morning. Every

August 15

they hold a special Mass here with the snowfall beautifully reenacted using pale flower petals that drift down from several removed ceiling panels.

Entering the basilica is like stepping back in time, so well is

its basic design and decor preserved from the 6th century.

The gargantuan space is some 284 feet long, a dark echoey environment suited to religious pilgrimages.

The glowing coffered

ceiling

was the work of Giuliano da Sangallo, said to be gold leafed using the very first gold brought back from the Americas by Columbus (a gift from Ferdinand and Isabella to the pope).

The

floor

was inlaid with marble chips in geometric patterns by the the great Cosmati clan around 1150, while the

mosaics

lining the nave and covering the triumphal arch before the altar are glittering testaments to the skill of 5th-century craftsmen (

the apse's Coronation of the Virgin mosaics

were designed by Iacopo Torriti in the 1290s).

The most striking later additions are the two magnificent and enormous

late Renaissance and baroque chapels

that flank the altar to form a transept (the Sistina Chapel on the left is particularly sumptuous).

Piazza S. Maria Maggiore
tel. +39-06-483-195, www.vatican.va