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Rome and Lazio
Artwork of the Month: October. The Arch of Constantine
October is the anniversary month of the fateful battle of the Milvian Bridge.
Artwork of the Month: August. Bust of Augustus Caesar from Aquileia
Augustus, ‘the revered one’, was the honorific title of Gaius Octavius, great-nephew of Julius Caesar and one of the most remarkable figures in Roman history. He has given his name to the month of August. Having no legitimate heir of his own, Julius Caesar formally adopted Octavius, and he exploited…
Rome: seasonal stations
If you happen to be in Rome in early spring, it is fun to follow some of the ‘Lenten Stations’. For each day of Lent, a particular church is assigned, and Mass is celebrated there. The tradition of the stational church dates back to the early years of Christianity, when…
Thoughts on Rome
Some thoughts and insights from Karl Audenaerde: We just returned from our annual month in Rome, and as always were pleasantly amazed by all the new stuff there still is to discover. You may be aware of most or all of it, but in case you are not, here are…
Pope Benedict: an unorthodox farewell
It didn’t take long. A mere twenty-fours hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced his abdication, portents were being seen in the skies above the Vatican. Jupiter, the great god of the Romans, began rattling his thunderbolts and lightning was recorded striking the cupola of St Peter’s—twice. This is the kind…
Obscure St Valentine and his famous Feast Day
‘St Valentine at the Milvian Bridge’ was an early Christian basilica situated outside the walls to the north of Rome. The true identity of Valentine, the saint to whom it is dedicated, is obscure, though one tradition makes him an early bishop martyred on the Via Flaminia, the continuation of…
The St Agnes lambs
“St Agnes’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold…” I have always loved Keats, and he is, of course, a poet with better claims than many others to a Roman association. But as a schoolchild, studying him, I disliked that poem. I sniggered at the…
A trip to the Port of Trajan, outside Rome
We were lucky to get into the area of the old Port of Trajan, just south of Fiumicino airport. The website states that it is “open” between 9am and 1pm on the first Saturday and last Sunday of the month, and gives a Google map with a pin stuck in…
Pour l’honneur de la France
In the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, just off the Corso in central Rome, is a simple, unobtrusive little monument to the French artist Poussin. He died in Rome on 19th November 1665 and the monument was placed in the church by Chateaubriand in 1832, at the height of…
An early-morning visit to Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, Rome
At half past seven on an early November morning, the sun is gilding the rooftops but the streets below are still in deep shadow. The newspaper kiosk is doing a slow trade. Few people are about as yet. There are street cleaners, and dog-owners bringing pooches out to empty their…
Church of SS Luca e Martina reopens above Roman Forum
Last week, for the first time in my life, I visited Rome without going into the Forum. Usually I pop in to check out any new developments, to visit parts of it that were roped off the last time, or simply to enjoy the thrill of just being there. But…
How the tide turned at the Milvian Bridge
Christianity did not conquer the Roman Empire with the sword—and yet it was with the sword that the groundwork was laid, at the Milvian Bridge. Today the place is peaceful: but this not particularly impressive-seeming footbridge over the Tiber was the scene, in late October of the year AD 312,…
St Augustine and his mother at Ostia
An extract from Pilgrim’s Rome: A Blue Guide Travel Monograph. When you get off the train at Ostia Antica, you will do so together with a small huddle of visitors bound for the ruins of the ancient port city. Walk with them across the footbridge from the railway station, stick with…
Hadrian, Antinoüs and the Christian Fathers
Hadrian is one of the most interesting and enigmatic of all the pagan emperors. He was a man of contrasts, described in the Historia Augustaas: “in the same person austere and genial, dignified and playful, dilatory and quick to act, niggardly and generous, deceitful and straightforward, cruel and merciful, and always…
Can’t face the Vatican crowds? Try San Lorenzo
Rome has been in the Press quite a lot recently. News about the ban on snacking around ancient monuments in the city centre has spread like wildfire across the ether’s social media platforms. The despair of Vatican officials and their cluelessness about how to handle the Sistine Chapel’s five million…
Earliest-known image of a martyrdom
Under the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo on the Caelian Hill in Rome are the excavations known as the Case Romane (‘Roman houses’; www.caseromane.it). What has been revealed is complex and fascinating and spans at least five centuries. Traces of a wealthy domus with a nymphaeum, a street and…
Mithraism: a Roman Mystery Religion
The religions practised in the later Roman empire were many and various. There was the official state cult, of course, centred around the great triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. But many other cults from different parts of the empire also flourished. There were the Egyptian religions, for example those…
Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome
I have always been fascinated by circular buildings. The Pantheon and Santa Costanza in Rome, the tholos at Delphi. One of my especial favourites is the little-visited Santo Stefano Rotondo, on the slopes of Rome’s Caelian Hill. Below is an extract from the Blue Guide travel monograph Pilgrim’s Rome: Santo Stefano…
Painting of the Day
Mural of a bird-filled garden from the triclinium of the Villa of Livia (wife of Augustus). In the Museo Nazionale in Palazzo Massimo, near the Baths of Diocletian, Rome.
Comments on Pilgrim’s Rome: A Blue Guide Travel Monograph
A guide to Rome’s Christian monuments, explained and put into context by an examination of the history of pilgrimage, from its most ancient forms to more modern, even secular practice. View the book’s contents, index and some sample pages, and buy securely from blueguides.com here »
