Free Republic

A recently completed restoration and exhibit shows how Christians put their mark on Rome after the emperors exited the stage.For 1200 years the Roman Forum thrived as the legislative, religious and administrative nerve center of Rome. From the little kingdom founded in 753 BC to the SPQR of the Roman Republic to the mighty Empire, the little open area grew from marketplace to city center to hub of the world. But then what happened? When the Empire fell in 476, did the Forum just cease to be? No, it did not. Despite the implosion of the Roman government, the Forum...

After 30 years and millions of dollars of restoration, 1500-year-old Santa Maria Antiqua, buried beneath the Roman Forum by an earthquake in 847, has finally reopened to the public, and it is stunning: “This church is the Sistine Chapel of the early Middle Ages,” Maria Andaloro, an art historian involved in the project, told Reuters. “It collected the very best of figurative culture of the Christian world between Rome and Byzantium.” Being buried by the earthquake saved the church from being altered in later centuries, particularly during the Counter-Reformation, said Prof Andaloro. Among the most significant frescoes is a depiction...

A 12-year restoration programme at the fifth-century church of S. Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum is almost complete. Rome's superintendent for archaeology Mariarosaria Barbera said that once the final works had been carried out on the floors, preparations would begin in January to cater for visits on a limited basis in the spring. Barbera said the church would then open to the public for at least three days a week, "allowing adequate breaks to ensure the microclimate." Located on the north-western slopes of the Palatine hill, the church is one of Rome's earliest surviving Christian monuments. Its richly decorated...

Sat 10 Apr 2004 Buried church gives up secrets of Byzantine art in Rome AIDAN LEWIS IN ROME BURIED for 12 centuries by a landslide and closed to the public for 24 years, the oldest Christian church in the Roman Forum has been reopened, offering glimpses of Byzantine frescoes that changed scholars’ views of medieval art. Guided tours of the Santa Maria Antiqua, nestled under the imperial palaces of the Palatine Hill and facing the main ruins of the Forum, begin this weekend and continue through May. Werner Schmid, a restoration expert for the project, says visitors will get a...

A 1,500-year-old church which was buried under debris from an earthquake for more than a millennium has reopened to the public after a painstaking restoration of some of the world’s earliest Christian art. The sixth-century church of Santa Maria Antiqua is located in the ancient Roman Forum, at the bottom of the Palatine Hill, where Roman emperors lived for centuries in sumptuous palaces.

After 12 centuries under rubble and 24 years of restoration, Rome has opened the doors to Santa Maria Antiqua, the oldest church in the Roman Forum's ancient ruins and its rare collection of early medieval art. An earthquake buried the church and its numerous Byzantine and early Christian frescoes in 847 and it remained untouched until excavation and reconstruction began in 1900. Much of the structure had survived and restorers have been hard at work on the interior since 1980 with the site to reopen to the public on April 10 until the end of May. "The Santa Maria...