The Roots of Christianity

The church of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill sports some of the oldest Christian art in the world

This is one of Rome's best surviving paleochristian churches. Santa Sabina was built in AD 422–32 and still retains its original 5th century wooden doors, beautifully carved with Biblical scenes including one of the earliest Crucifixions in western art (the door is located at the end of the 15th-century porch filled with sarcophagus lids you can spin to examine both sides).

At first glance, the gorgeous and shadowy interior seems almost perfectly preserved, with giant Corinthian columns pirated from a nearby ancient structure and the original opus sectile marble inlay above the arches. Most of the chapels, however, have been baroqued, though this impacts little on the overall effect. If it's open, pop into the pretty 13th-century cloister off the porch.

Just down the road is the massive Knights of Malta gate.

Piazza Pietro d'Illiria/Via S. Sabina