St John Lateran

and Baths of Caracalla, Villa Farnesina

Continuing Walk 5, coming from Santa Maria Maggiore

SAINT JOHN LATERAN

The Basilica of St. John Lateran (Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano) is the second most important church in the Catholic world, after St. Peter’s. The best way to get there is by taxi, but you could go by metro line A, which takes you six stops from Spagna to a station located 300 meters from the church.

The basilica is outside the center and you’ve got a make an effort to get here but you will find it worthwhile. It is technically outside the territory of Italy because the church is one of the Vatican’s extraterritorial properties, portions of the sovereign Vatican state within Italian territory. St. John is on the site of Rome’s first official church, consecrated in the year 324 for Constantine the Great, and was the original residence of the popes for many centuries.

It might surprise you to learn that St. John, not St. Peter’s, is still the home church of the Pope where he comes to celebrate the most important festivals. A series of churches were constructed here over the centuries, each of them burned down or collapsed and demolished. The structure we see today, started in the 15th century and finished 200 years later, is designed in a style similar to ancient Roman basilicas: vast, rectangular, with a box-shaped nave. It was completed in the elaborate Baroque style, with the facade finally added in the 18th century. This is a grand structure containing one of the world’s most beautiful and dramatic church interiors.

Upon entering, you will be struck by the vast space, 430 feet long, with an amazing wooden ceiling covered with gold high above and a series of immense statues on both sides of the nave. Large paintings and mosaics cover the walls in the transept and apse surrounding the beautiful altar, which itself is crowned by an impressive canopy glistening with more gold. This is a sacred and delightful space that you really must explore in detail by walking all around to get the different views. Two massive aisles along both sides of the central nave are lined with a series of glorious chapels and present additional spaces for you to discover.

Francesco Borromini was brought in during the late Baroque era for the final flourish, which you can see in twelve large alcoves along the nave that hold giant statues of the Apostles, carved by other artists. Borromini designed these vast architectural niches in his typical concave style, framing by means of elaborate geometry and making marvelous settings for dramatic statues, which were added later. Many other important architects were involved in the final designs of the Baroque structure we see today, including Carlo Fontana and Giacomo della Porta.

Another feature not to be missed is the serene 13th-century cloister, well worth the small admission charge. The church itself is free, but the cloister is part of the Basilica Museum, so pay the small fee which allows you to walk all the way around the cloister and enjoy splendid views. The cloister walkway surrounds a beautiful garden and is lined with a series of twisted pairs of delicate spiral columns. Various sculptural fragments and tombs are on display along the wall completing the scene.

The official name of the church is: Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran (Italian: Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano).

When finished with your visit, walk back through the St. John Gate in the Aurelian Wall (Porta San Giovanni) into the busy streets of the city, where you could catch a taxi. It is about 2 kilometers from St. John to the Baths of Caracalla, a quick, easy taxi ride.

BATHS of CARACALLA

The Baths of Caracalla (Terme di Caracalla) were the city's second largest Roman public baths, or thermae. The baths were likely built between AD 212 and 217, during the reigns of emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla. The estimated capacity was 1,600 people at a time, totaling 6,000 to 8,000 bathers throughout the day.

The baths followed the "great Imperial baths" blueprint for Roman baths. They were more a leisure center than just a series of baths. Besides being used for bathing, the complex also offered facilities for taking walks, reading/studying, exercise and body care.

The baths consisted of a central frigidarium (cold room), a double pool tepidarium (medium), and a circular caldarium (hot room). The caldarium was a circular room with marble floors and topped by a dome of almost 36 m diameter, close to the size of the Pantheon's dome. The weight of the dome was carried by just eight masonry pillars.

The floor of the main room was covered with a black and white mosaic. Benches lined the walls. The baths were originally ornamented with high-quality sculptures, estimated to have numbered more than 120.

There were also two palaestras (gyms where wrestling and boxing were practiced). The northeastern end of the bath building contained a natatio or swimming pool. The caldarium had seven pools, the frigidarium four, the tepidarium two. Next to the caldarium were saunas. Walls and floor were made from marble.

The bath complex covered approximately 25 hectares. The complex is rectangular, measuring 337 m × 328 m. Its construction involved the moving of a substantial amount of earth, as parts of the nearby hills had to be removed or leveled into platforms. Several million bricks were used in the construction. The baths contained at least 252 columns, 16 of which had a height of over 12 meters.

The baths were in operation until the 530s and then fell into disuse and ruin. At least since the 12th century the baths were used as a quarry for construction materials, and of decorative pieces to be reused in churches and palaces. During the 14th century, the area was used as vineyards and gardens. Restoration work continued throughout the 19th century, and in 1870, the area became the property of the Italian government. Work has continued ever since to stabilize the site and enhance conditions for visitors.

From Caracalla to Villa Farnesina is about 4 kilometers, so exit the baths and look for a taxi on busy Viale Aventino.

VILLA FARNESINA

This lovely, small art museum is well-worth finding, in a slightly out-of-the-way location along Lungotevere della Farnesina by the Tiber. See their website for more information.

There are lush gardens with fountains outside and highly decorated rooms including beautiful frescoes by Raphael with ceiling murals in his style. There is so much illusionistic architecture painted on the walls that it seems as though you are looking through windows and arches, but it’s all trompe l’oeil painted onto the flat walls.

The palace walls were covered in frescoes by Raphael, and especially Baldassarre Peruzzi, who was a master of illusionistic three dimensions and created a long series of vivid frescoes in the Perspectives Hall. There are amazing coffer gilded ceilings along with the other beautiful architectural details.

The small two-storied building, an exceedingly pleasing Renaissance edifice, was erected in 1509-11 for the papal banker Agostino Chigi, an enthusiastic admirer of art and patron of Raphael. In 1580 Cardinal Al. Farnese acquired the villa; which remained in the possession of the Farnese family until the extinction of the latter in 1731. It then passed to the kings of Naples, and in 1861 it was let by Francis II., the last of them, for 99 years to the Duke of Ripalda.

From the garden we enter a hall on the ground floor between two projecting wings, originally open, but now enclosed with windows. The ceiling, with its pendentives and spandrels, was decorated from the designs of Raphael (1516-18) with twelve illustrations of the MYTH of PSYCHE, which are among the most charming creations of the master. The whole produces a charming and brilliant effect owing to the indestructible beauty of the designs, justly regarded as unique, even in a period so rich in noble creations of art.

 The apartment adjoining the entrance hall on the left, which also was once without the protecting windows, contains a second mythological picture by Raphael, which is no less charming than the Psyche series, painted entirely by the master’s own hand in 1514.

Go upstairs and you will discover one of the truly great paintings of the Italian Renaissance by Il Sodoma, his masterpiece called “Nuptials of the Conqueror with Roxanne,” a stupendous work of art. Here there are also fine architectural scenes by Peruzzi, one of the best examples of this kind of deceptive, perspective painting.

Walk 5 concludes with a visit to Trastevere.