Monday, February 15, 2016

San Clemente, the Church that we did not see



After the conference on Wednesday, we went to dinner with some of the attendees.  We walked for 20 minutes down the hill to a restaurant close to the metro stop.  Dinner was delicious and the talk was interesting.

The next day when we set out to explore on our own, we could not find the Streetwise map of Rome.  We finally came to the conclusion that it had fallen out of the Professor's coat pocket at the restaurant.  We got another paper copy of Rome from Charles (who seemed to be just about the only employee in the entire building.) 

We had been told the night before that the church that we must see was San Clemente and that it was very close to the Colosseum.   We could not find it anywhere on the map and we saw no signs directing us to where it was located.

When we returned from our day of walking in Rome, I looked into my backpack and there was the missing map.  And there only a few blocks from where we had been was the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano.  

What is unique about this building is that excavation has been done and two buildings have been found beneath the existing church.  The excavations are open to the public. If you are as curious as I was about what I missed, you can take a tour of the excavations of San Clemente with an Italian guide.  He does not wear a hard hat but I suspect that on his tour he sees areas that are not open to the public.  Of course, I am handicapped because I don't speak any Italian.  Despite that I found the video interesting. According to another source this layering of buildings is not unique.  It is the excavation that started in the 19th century which makes it unusual.  

I also chanced upon a written description of the basilica.  After reading this author's introduction to Rome and information about the Basilica of San Clemente, I feel that it might be a good thing that I didn't make it to the church.  Would I have ever noticed that these pillars do not match and were actually cannibalized from fallen Roman ruins?  Apparently they are not even the same height.  It is an interesting article about Roman architecture.  

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