Rome

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San Clemente

This 12th-century basilica is a 3D time line. In the main church, the schola cantorum (choir), with its exquisite carving and mosaic decorations, survives from the fourth-century structure. The apse mosaic is 12th century: from the drops of Christ’s blood springs the vine representing the Church, which swirls around peasants in their daily tasks, Doctors of the Church and a host of animals. In the chapel of St Catherine of Alexandria, frescoes by Masolino (c1430) show the saint praying as her torturers prepare the wheel on which she was stretched to death (later giving her name to a firework). From the sacristy, steps lead down into the fourth-century basilica. From there, a stairway descends to an ancient Roman alley. On one side is a second-century Roman insula (apartment building) containing a site where the Persian god Mithras was worshipped. On the other side of the lane are rooms of a Roman house used for meetings by early Christians.

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