San Clemente

San Clemente Review

One of the most impressive archaeological sites in Rome, San Clemente is an archaeological triple-decker of a church. A 12th-century church was built on top of a 4th-century church, which in turn was built over a 2nd-century pagan temple to the god Mithras. Little of the temple remains, but the 4th-century church is largely intact, perhaps because it wasn't unearthed until the 19th century. (It was discovered by Irish Dominican monks; members of the order still live in the adjacent monastery.)

The upper church, which you enter from street level, holds a beautiful early-12th-century mosaic showing a cross on a gold background, surrounded by swirling green acanthus leaves, teeming with little scenes of everyday life. The marble choir screens, salvaged from the 4th-century church, are decorated with Early Christian symbols: doves, vines, and fish. In the left nave is the Castiglioni chapel, holding frescoes painted around 1400 by the Florentine artist Masolino da Panicale (1383-1440), a key figure in the introduction of realism and one-point perspective into Renaissance painting. Note the large Crucifixion and scenes from the lives of Sts. Catherine, Ambrose, and Christopher, plus an Annunciation (over the entrance). Before you leave the upper church, take a look at the pretty cloister—evening concerts are held here in summer.

To the right of the sacristy (and bookshop) descend the stairs to the 4th-century church, active until 1084, when it was damaged beyond repair during a siege of the area by the Norman prince Robert Guiscard. Still intact, though, are some colorful 11th-century frescoes depicting stories from the life of St. Clement.

Descend an additional set of stairs to the famed Mithraeum, a shrine dedicated to the god Mithras, whose cult spread from Persia and gained a hold in Rome during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Mithras was believed to have been born in a cave and was thus worshipped in underground, cavernous chambers, where initiates into the all-male cult would share a meal while reclining on stone couches, some visible here along with the altar block. Most such pagan shrines in Rome were destroyed by Christians, who often built churches over their remains, as happened here.