San Giovanni in Laterano

San Giovanni in Laterano Review

This is Rome's cathedral; it's here that the pope officiates in his capacity as bishop of Rome. The towering facade dates from 1736 and was modeled on that of St. Peter's Basilica. The 15 colossal statues (Christ, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, and the 12 Apostles of the church) look out on the sea of dreary suburbs that have spread from Porta San Giovanni to the lower slopes of the Alban Hills. San Giovanni was founded in the 4th century on land donated by the emperor Constantine, who had obtained it from the wealthy patrician family of the Laterani. Vandals, earthquakes, and fire damaged the original and successive constructions. Finally, in 1646, Pope Innocent X commissioned Borromini to rebuild the church, and its Borromini's rather cool, tense nave that you see today.

Under the portico on the left stands an ancient statue of Constantine. Another link with Rome's past is the central portal's ancient bronze doors, brought here from the Curia building in the Forum. Inside, little is left of the early decorations. The fragment of a fresco on the first pillar in the double aisle on the right depicts Pope Boniface VIII proclaiming the first Holy Year in 1300; it's attributed to the 14th-century Florentine painter Giotto. The altar's rich Gothic tabernacle dates from 1367 and, somewhat gruesomely, contains what are believed to be the heads of Sts. Peter and Paul. You shouldn't miss the church cloister, with its twin columns encrusted with 13th-century Cosmatesque mosaics by the Vassallettos, a father-and-son team. Enter the cloister from the last chapel at the end of the left aisle.