SANTA MARIA ANTIQUA

Domitian (51-96 AD), on top of an earlier complex dating back to the time of Caligula (12-41 AD), built the complex of structures on the northwestern slopes of the Palatine Hill, towards the Forum, where the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, founded in the mid-6th century, stands. It is the oldest and most important Christian monument in the Roman Forum. The quadriportico, probably on two levels and with a central impluvium, was transformed into three naves, and the end rooms became the prosthesis, the diaconium, and the presbytery, respectively. Only later was the apse added, carved into the rear wall. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, a community of Latin monks settled there and likely transformed it into the church of Sant'Antonio, as recorded in the text of the Mirabilia Urbis Romae (mid-12th century). Discovered in 1900 by Giacomo Boni, after complex structural interventions and long, delicate restorations of the frescoes by the Special Superintendency for the Colosseum and the Central Archaeological Area of ​​Rome, it was opened to the public in 2016.