Triumph of Christ

In Saint John Lateran, the oldest Basilica in the West, the Resurrection triumphs, as can be seen clearly from afar, because a statue of the Risen Christ stands at the top of the façade, with raised arm and outstretched hand, attracting humanity to Christ. The Basilica is part of a virtual geometric figure whose long straight lines connect it to the Churches of Saint Mary Major and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The three churches form a spiritual triangle that speaks of Christ: the first represents his Birth, while the second bears witness to the Passion and Death of Our Lord.

Inside the Lateran Basilica, Christ’s face radiates from the apse — the work of Jacopo Torriti in the 13th century. This face of the Saviour, which was later re-touched between 1876 and 1886 under Leo xiii , is a large-scale copy of the one preserved in the nearby Sancta Sanctorum.

The Basilica was originally dedicated to Christ the Saviour, then Pope Gregory the Great added John the Evangelist and John the Baptist. It is considered to be the mother of all churches since it was the first, desired by Emperor Constantine following his victory at Ponte Milvio in 313. It was here, in this Basilica, that Christians were able to stop hiding and profess their religion freely for the first time.

Urban planning

The urban plan creates a spiritual bond that amplifies in space as it connects other holy sites in Rome and especially Saint Peter’s to it. In fact, the procession for the Pope’s instalment started from the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles and ended in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran where he took possession of the Episcopal Chair as Bishop of Rome. This itinerary was highly symbolic because it also passed by the Colosseum, the site of martyrdom of the first Christians, and the Capitoline Hill, the site of administrative power of the Roman Empire and then of municipal Rome. It was recorded for the first time in 858 in the time of Pope Nicholas i .

During the Second Jubilee, that of 1350, Clement vi added the Basilica of Saint John Lateran to those of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The path of the Pontiffs set the Jubilee itinerary, which branched out over time to include other basilicas; first Saint Mary Major, which became the fourth Basilica to be prescribed for pilgrims to visit — visits which had to be made repeatedly in order to obtain the Indulgence.

Polarity
Saint Peter — Saint John Lateran

At the time of the first Jubilee, Boniface viii still resided at the Lateran, and his Bull of Indiction Antiquorum Habet Fida Relatio was dated 17 February 1300 at the residence, in accordance with the rules of the chancery. A few days later, however, the Pope decided to promulgate it a second time and so at the bottom it bears the Datum Romae apud S. Petrum, “given in Rome at Saint Peter”. This change of place between the two poles, Vatican and Lateran, clearly shows the eminently Petrine character that Boniface viii attributed to the Jubilee, but also to the irresistible attraction the Holy Place beyond the Tiber exercised on the faithful who went there to pray at the Tomb of the Apostle and venerate the well-known Veil of Veronica. All this was sealed on 22 February, the Feast-day of the Chair of Peter, when the Pontiff went to Saint Peter’s, dressed in splendid vestments, a golden silk chasuble, to solemnly proclaim the Jubilee Indulgence and place the Bull on the altar of the Apostle.

Giotto’s fresco

A pictorial reference to that Jubilee is the fragment of a fresco on the first pillar on the right as one enters Saint John’s Basilica, depicting Pope Boniface viii looking out of a loggia in the act of blessing or of giving an address, which is generally interpreted as the Act of Proclaiming the Jubilee. From a copy by Jacopo Grimaldi preserved in a manuscript in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Instrumenta translationum, ms. 1622, f. inf 227) it is possible to reconstruct the original appearance of the fresco, which was much larger than the known fragment: Pope Boniface is depicted facing the crowd from the top of the Lateran loggia, flanked by a cleric and a cardinal, perhaps Francesco Caetani. To the right and left, outside the papal baldachin, numerous prelates are arranged in two symmetrical groups. Furthermore, in 1570, the historian Onofrio Panvinio recalled that the scene formed part of a pictorial cycle including the Baptism of Constantine and the construction of the Lateran Basilica. He stated that its original location was in the loggia called thalamo or pulpitum Bonifacii, today the Loggia of Blessings, and that an earlier plan shows that the Pope had it built on to the front of the addition to the ancient Lateran edifice. The commission of the fresco dates back to the period of the first Jubilee or at least to around the year 1300. In any case, various studies have proposed a reinterpretation of the scene, identified rather as a ceremony of “curses” that took place on Holy Thursday, in that case 7 April of the same year, and which targeted the Colonna family and Philip of France, or with the second Jubilee Bull of 22 February 1300, promulgated on the same day as the Antiquorum Habet Fida Relatio aimed, precisely, to exclude the enemies of the Church from the benefit of the Indulgences. Accepting this second interpretation would give the fresco a highly political meaning.

Pilgrim-friendly urban planning

Over the centuries, various interventions were carried out to make the route easier for the pilgrims’ journey. One such urban plan, which was never completed, was Sixtus v ’s project, with the help of Domenico Fontana, that went past the Colosseum and Saint John, and envisaged a star-shaped road plan whose points would end at the Basilicas. Then there was Gregory xiii ’s project in view of the Jubilee of 1575.

Exceptional nature of the Archbasilica

The Lateran Basilica was the centre of a complex of buildings that clustered around it, called the Patriarchio, where the Popes lived from the time of Constantine, except for the Avignon period, from 1309 to 1377. However, at the end of the 14th century, the papal court began to move to the Vatican, also because the fortress of Castel Sant’Angelo guaranteed impregnable protection in times of danger.

The importance, indeed the originality of the Lateran is clearly expressed in its definition, which can be seen in some inscriptions on the main façade: Omnium Urbis et Orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput, Mother and Head of all the Churches of the City and the World, as recorded in the sources. The Liber Pontificalis, for instance, notes that its splendour was such that it became known as the “Basilica Aurea”, or “Golden Basilica”. In his geographical dictionary, the Arab scholar Yāqūt, who lived between the 12th and 13th centuries, describes the amazing wonders of Rome, draws up a list of the churches and attributes the greatest importance to Saint John, which he calls “of the nations”: Ecclesia universalis.

The most precious

Yāqūt adds that Saint John is also the most precious church and describes with admiration the innumerable doors of which 40 were of gold, a forest of columns in splendid marble or gilded bronze, an altar all set with emeralds and even golden statues with ruby eyes. He does not dwell on the relics except for those belonging to the Jewish sphere such as the rod of Moses, remains of the Tablets of the Law and the Ark of the Covenant. Centuries earlier, the Liber Pontificalis too had spoken of the donations Constantine had made to confer imperial magnificence on it.

A factory in continuous evolution

The present layout is that of Constantine and is divided into five naves. Throughout time, it has always been embellished with works of art of great value, also thanks to the donations that are well attested to in the sources, such as the Liber Pontificalis. However, it was subjected to vandalism and looting too. In 1300, under Boniface viii , new works were undertaken on the occasion of the first Jubilee in history, perhaps too, as already mentioned, with frescoes by Giotto. Later Pope Innocent x commissioned a total reorganization for the Jubilee of 1650. The architect in charge was Borromini. The central nave was characterized by huge proportions and the lateral ones by clear and fine perspectives. At the end of 1702, the statues of the 12 apostles were placed in the niches Borromini had projected in the tabernacle-shaped pillars, inspired for the most part by drawings by the painter Carlo Maratta. Pope Clement xii added the grandiose façade, surmounted by 15 enormous statues, designed by Alessandro Galilei, completed in 1734. The last major interventions were made by Pius ix , in the 19th century, who had the tabernacle and the confessional restored. Later Leo xiii , between 1876 and 1886, commissioned the architect Francesco Vespignani to dismantle the apse and rebuild it further back. On this occasion, the mosaic by Jacopo Torriti was dismantled, heavily remodelled and reassembled.

The relics

However, the relics are what interest and attract pilgrims most. According to sources, no church possessed more relics than the Basilica of Saint John. In the 12th century, Abbot Nikulas of Munkathvera from Iceland wrote that Rome measured four miles in length and two in width, and that it contained five bishops’ thrones. One was at the Church of San Giovanni Battista, which housed the Papal Chair, the blood of Christ and his tunic, one of Mary’s garments, and a large number of Saint John the Baptist’s bones. He also wrote that the foreskin of the Child Jesus and the milk from Mary’s breast, fragments of Christ’s crown of thorns and of his tunic and many other sacred relics, were kept there in a single large golden vessel.

The sacrosanct heads of Peter and Paul

The heads of Peter and Paul are the most precious relics which are kept in silver busts, placed high up and visible through a golden grate above the architrave that supports the roof of the Gothic ciborium, the work of Giovanni di Stefano in 1367. These busts containing the relics were made at the beginning of the 19th century, while the original ones, dating back to 1370 during the Pontificate of Urban v (1362-1370), were melted down at the end of the 18th century to pay for the war indemnity to France with the Treaty of Tolentino of 1797 under Napoleon. Right under the ciborium, at the bottom of a spiral staircase, is the tomb of Pope Martin v who wanted to be buried in the shadow of the most holy relics.

The Tables of Peter and the Last Supper

In addition, the marble altar is placed over an earlier wooden one, where according to tradition the Apostle Peter said Mass. The latter relic is a double to the remains of the wooden table of the Last Supper, placed to the left of the main altar, in a closed room, opposite the 16th-century silver relief by Curzio Vanni. What is certain is that the existence of these two similar relics in the same basilica gives substance to an important symbolism: the continuity of the mystery of the Eucharist, from Christ to Peter.

Ancient symbols of the past are transformed in the present

In front of or inside the Basilica, historical and iconographic sources testify to the presence of various works of ancient Rome, once again exalting the Lateran’s importance.

The Capitoline Wolf, a well-known bronze sculpture now in the Capitoline Museums, is the symbol of the city. It arrived in the Campidoglio with the donation of Sixtus iv . The first reliable information concerning this statue dates back to the 10th century, when it was chained to the façade or inside the Lateran Palace: in the Chronicon of Benedict of Soracte dating back to the same period, the monk describes the institution of a Supreme Court of Justice in the Lateran Palace, at the site known as the mother of the Romans. Trials and executions “at the she-wolf” were recorded until 1450. The She-wolf was preserved together with other monuments from the past, such as the bronze inscription of the Lex de imperio Vespasiani, and they were exhibited as shields, symbolic of the passage of time from the past to the present, from the pagan to the Christian world, from the Roman Empire to the Papacy.

Another extraordinary testimony from the ancient world is placed at the entrance to the central nave, closed by the superb bronze door from the first century BC that belonged to the Curia Iulia, the ancient seat of the Roman Senate in the Forum. It was dismantled in 1656 by Alexander vii and restored by Borromini, who added the Chigi’s heraldic symbols — stars and acorns — to it.

The presence of the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Lateran is recorded from the 10th century, but it is likely that it had been there since at least the end of the eighth century, when Charlemagne had the layout of the campus Lateranensis duplicated. In January 1538, by order of Pope Paul iii Farnese, the statue was transferred to the Capitoline Hill, which since 1143 had become the seat of the municipal authorities. In the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in the Carafa Chapel, painted by Filippino Lippi between 1488 and 1493, in the background on the left, in front of the view of the Lateran, the statue of the Roman Emperor stands out, thus showing a snapshot from his time. The Basilica and the Lateran buildings have been depicted in countless views, especially watercolours and engravings that attest to the passion of travellers on the Grand Tour in the 18th century.

The obelisk in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano is 32.18 meters high, reaching a total of 45.70 meters with its base. It dates back to the time of the Pharaohs Tutmosis iii and Tutmosis iv , therefore to the 15th century BC. It was brought to Rome, from the Temple of Amun-Ra in Thebes, Egypt, by the Emperor Constantius ii in 357 and placed by the praefectus urbis Memmio Vitrasio Orfito on the spina of the Circus Maximus. It was rediscovered in 1587, together with the Flaminio obelisk, and transported to, and erected in its current location by the architect Domenico Fontana at the behest of Pope Sixtus v .

The Holy Door of the Lateran

The door on the right side of the front of the Basilica is made of dark bronze, now somewhat corroded; whereas the little foot of the Child Jesus and the hand of the Virgin shine brightly from afar, signs of the passage of the faithful, as they like to touch the sacred images as high as they can out of devotion.

In 2000, on the occasion of the Jubilee Year, Saint John Paul ii wanted to donate a new Holy Door to the Lateran Basilica. The work is by the sculptor Floriano Bodini, a student of Francesco Messina. The door has a single bronze panel that measures 1.9 meters high by 3.6 meters wide. A large cross stretches across the whole door. Below Christ, with his sorrowful face and large despondent hands, the Virgin tenderly embraces her Son, as one figure, while blessing with her right hand, in the Latin style. At the bottom is the papal coat of arms.

On the door some plaques record the passage of a Pontiff through the Holy Door on the occasion of previous Jubilees. Although they are simple, rather small, they are moving as each one bears the epigraphic characters typical of its historical period, its time.

On 29 December 2024, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of Saint John Lateran, which will close on Sunday, 28 December 2025.

By Maria Milvia Morciano