Blog Post 7: The Layers of the of Basilica St. Clemente

The only picture I have. This is the entrance to the Basilica.

We are beginning to study the early Christians in Rome. Today we visited the Basilica of St. Clemente which is one of the churches in Rome assigned to a cardinal (and unfortunately they didn't allow pictures!)  but what is even more amazing about this church are the layers of its foundation. We had a guest professor visit us today and take us on a tour of all the layers of the Basilica. The first layer was around the first century AD and contained a private lodging and a public building with an alleyway between the two. In the private quarters there was a statue that represented the religion of mithraism. This form of religion is believed to have Persian origins. I thought it was interesting that not one, but two Catholic churches were over our heads as we looked at this shrine. I felt like it was a nice example of how the city and the culture changed over time.

Mithraism shrine.
Source: culturaltravelguide.com

The alley was very interesting to see. Back home, I am used to alleys that can hold a car plus a small group of people walking. In Rome, alleys seem to be a lot smaller but they are still big enough to fit a car through and people to walk in a single file line. This ancient alley, though, was so tiny I was questioning whether I could walk down it normally or if I would have to walk down it sideways. I thought there was no way people actually walked in between these buildings but when I turned to look at the other side, there were stairs built up the hill to make it easier to walk. People actually used this tiny alley! Seeing how close the buildings were, it's no wonder why fires were such a problem in ancient times.

We then went up into the ruins of the early Basilica. It was decorated with beautiful frescoes that told the story of St. Clemente's burial and miracles that had happened in his name. There was also a fresco of St. Alexius of Rome. What I found interesting were the patrons, the families that paid for the frescoes to be painted, also painted into the frescoes or very near it. Although I believe it is a good thing to donate to your church if you truly believe in the faith and want to spread the word of God but it also upsets me how they did this back in the days of this church. The people put their families on display for everyone to see how important and devote they are. But the teachings of Jesus, the leader of their faith, speak of being humble. This, in my opinion, is the opposite of being humble which begs the question: how good were these families with regards to their faith?

The present day church was very different from the other churches I've seen here. It appeared smaller for one, but it had a huge alter that took up a lot of space, limiting the walking room. It also seemed lighter than the others we visited. Even in the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, which was a very bright church, the alter was dark. This entire church seemed full of light. It appeared older than the others, too. That could be because of the paintings didn't seem lifelike. Even though they were more three dimensional than those in the ruins of the church underneath,  they were still very flat compared to the other churches we've seen.

If I had to choose a favorite level of the church it would definitely be the bottom with the ancient Roman buildings. I do think church history is important and very interesting, but so few "every day" buildings exist in Rome and the alleyway provides a new perspective on how the Romans lived.

Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, the paintings look lifelike and three dimensional .

These paintings are good in my opinion but it's easy to see the difference in the style of art used.
Source: exurbe.com