I read about a church the has the stairs that Jesus walked to face his trial with Pilot. They were shipped here by (I think) Constantine's mother. Anyone know the name or where in Rome it is? Thanks

Hi Lynette,<BR>It's San Giovanni in Laterno, southeast of the Forum, and almost exactly south of Piazza Vitttorio Emanuele. I stayed near the Spanish Steps, and the day I headed out to San Giovanni in Laterno, I just hopped on the Metro, took line A & I think the metro stop is called Porta San Giovanni. There is the church, which has a museum inside it, a piazza, and a palazzo, but the palazzo is not open to the public. The artwork there is wonderful; although some Bernini mosiacs were broken when being moved within the church, a number of them were restored. It's a lovely place, and I took a lot of photographs of the inside and outside. A number of the statues of the saints within the church will remind you of St. Peter's.<BR><BR>Buon Viaggio,<BR>BC

The "Scala Santa" is actually housed in a building that is not a church. At the top of the steps is "Santa Sanctorum", or chapel of St. Lawrence. The holy steps were originaly in the old Lateran Palace, which was almost destroyed in the 1308 fire that devastated the basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano. The building that houses the Scala Santa is on the other side of the square (relative to the complex that encloses the basilica, babtistery and reconstructed palace).

BC, Do you know a website which will show me pictures of Bernini mosaics? I love his art. Frankly, I didn't know he created any mosaics and cannot find an example in my art books.

No Bernini mosaics that I've heard of ... and I think that there actually isn't a single work by Bernini in the S. Giovanni in Laterano basilica! <BR><BR>Bernini (1598-1680) was the favorite artist/architect of Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) and was named chief architect of St. Peter's in 1629. Pope Innocent X (1644-1655), wasn't that much a fan of Bernini. To decorate and rebuild St. John's basilica, he comissioned Borromini instead, and works were done between 1646 and 1650. Under pope Alexander VII (1655-1667) Bernini appears in the foreground once again, when he built St. Peter's square.<BR><BR>The only "traces" of Bernini in St. John's basilica are the huge statues of the apostles, sculped much later, in the 18C, by folowers of his school. <BR><BR>Regarding mosaics in St. John's basilica, I only remember those in the apse, in the cloister and the 18C copy of a Guido Reni's painting in the Corsini chapel (there are other fine 5C mosaics in the chapels of the Bapistery). I figure that BC may be referring to the mosaics in the apse, that are indeed a copy of the 13C originals, which were destroyed when moved to enlarge the apse. But this was much later, under pope Leo XIII in 1885.<BR>

What kind of plane did Pilot fly?