Recent Discoveries in Churches in Rome

Author(s): Richard Krautheimer and Wolfgang Frankl

Source: American Journal of Archaeology , Jul. - Sep., 1939, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep.,
1939), pp. 388-400
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/499487

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RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CHURCHES IN ROME'

S. Lorenzo in Lucina

THE church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, situated today near Palazzo Fiano, presents
self in the form given it in 1606 and shortly after, as a single-naved building, with
apse and with six lateral chapels on each side. It has hardly ever been dealt wit
its entirety from an archaeological point of view: Morey published the (mediaev
fresco of the apse from a copy he found in the Dal Pozzo codices at Windsor;3 s
years ago I published a few observations on some older parts contained within
clerestory, without realizing at the time their full implications.' During the last few
years it has been possible to clarify the history of the building sufficiently: in
light S. Lorenzo in Lucina is seen to be one of the great basilicas of the time of Sixt
III, contemporary with S. Maria Maggiore and S. Sabina, and their equal in
and importance.
Within the walls and below the pavement of the present seventeenth-century edi
fice are preserved the remnants of at least two older churches and of a Roman build
ing. The mediaeval narthex was restored a few years ago. The clerestory shows,
low the rectangular windows which were pierced through it in the seventeenth
tury and under the rubble work by which its wall was heightened, a series of s
windows set in blind arcades, constructed of brickwork typical of the twelfth
tury. Indeed, it is known through extant inscriptions that the high altar and o
side altar were newly dedicated in 111H, and that two new consecrations of t
whole church took place during the twelfth century, one in 1130 and one in 11
since the construction of the clerestory may well date from 1130, while the ca
panile was added to the clerestory somewhat later, it would be only logical to d
this one to 1196. From the twelfth century on the church had the form of a basilic
with a narthex on columns, a nave and two aisles, and a semicircular apse. Accor
to the number of windows, nave and aisles were separated by ten arcades, wh
were carried by oblong piers, as is shown by a drawing from the first years of
seventeenth century in the State Archives.6
Within this mediaeval clerestory, however, the left front corner and the right re
corner of a still older church are preserved, built in masonry consisting of o
mixtum in the upper parts and of brickwork in the lower parts, a combination typ
cal of the fifth century.' This date is confirmed by a notice in the Liber Pontificali
to the effect that Sixtus erected a basilica in honor of St. Lawrence,8 evidently
place of the older edifice of the "titulus," where Pope Damasus had been elected
1 This is a preliminary report on some discoveries made during the last summers in Roman chur
in connection with the preparation of the second volume of the Corpus Basilicarum Christiana
Romae.2
2 Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae i, fasc. 1 and 9 so far published, Citta del Vaticano, 19
and 1938. SMorey, Lost Mosaics . . . of Rome, 1915, plate I, pp. 6 ff.
4 Illustrazione Vaticana 1935, pp. 667 ff. 5Forcella, Iscrizioni v, pp. 113 ff.
6 State Archives, Rome, cart. 85, R. 508.
Compare, e.g., S. Maria Maggiore, apse and nave; S. Vitale, etc.
8 Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne i, 1886, pp. 234 and 9235, n. 19. Contrary to Duchesne's and More
opinion, S. Pesarini ("Contributi alla storia di S. Lorenzo," in: Studi Romani 1913, pp., 37 if.) h
388

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

OF AMERICA

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RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CHURCHES IN ROME 389

366.1 Fortunately these two corners determine not onl

width of the fifth-century nave; they show likewise the tr
windows, their height, width and distance apart (3.95 m
respectively). In addition to these remnants of the cler
foundation walls of the apse (reinforced later, possibly in
century),2 of both the aisles, and of the colonnades of th
tion wall of the fagade, with the thresholds of three of
also traced; it is situated under the facade of the presen
original level of the building. All these foundation walls are
used in the upper parts of the old clerestory. Besides the
corners of the clerestory, quite a number of other walls of
are preserved: small parts of the side wall of the right aisle
a later construction), and quite considerable sections of t
of a fore-choir which linked the apse to the nave, and o
apse, which continued the right aisle along the fore-ch
through a door into the aisle, evidently to serve as a sa
eighth century a small side apse was added. Finally, parts
tween the nave and the fore-choir could be traced (fig. 2), in
the abacus and the capital of the left-hand supporting co
Thus the principal features of this fifth-century edifice a
one of the largest in Rome, 54.10 m. long and 24.75 m. w
correspond exactly to those of S. Sabina. It consisted of
14.65 m. high, and of two lower aisles. The nave ended
apse, the fore-choir of which was accompanied at least on
continuing the aisle. Three doors led into the nave. The n
thirteen large windows. Although this leads to the concl
were separated by thirteen arcades, we do not yet know t
nor the form of their supports. But apart from these un
able to reconstruct one of the largest and most importan
fifth century, which, besides representing the common
basilica, adds to it a few features before unknown in Rom
the fore-choir of the apse and the accompanying sacristy-lik
This side room, certainly a sacristy, may have had a cou
in a baptistery, thus forming an arrangement known fro
such as S. Crisogono and S. Stefano in Via Latina, though
the fifth century. The fore-choir, on the other hand, ce
types of the Near East, and while it is obvious that Nea
quite common in Rome from the late fifth century on, t
the second quarter of the fifth century is quite unusual. Wh
they really are derived from the Near East, or whether

convincingly proved that the passage refers to S. Lorenzo in Lucina, n

Kirsch, Die r6mischen Titelkirchen, 1918, pp. 80 ff.
1 Liber Pontificalis i, p. 364, n. 2.
2 Restorations are mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis under Bene
(772-95). (Liber Pontificalis i, pp. 363, 507).

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FIG.. 1.-S. LORENZO IN LUCINA. GROUND PLAN AND SECTION

(Drawing, W. Frankl)

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V, ... ;0,

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FIG. . - S. LORENZO IN LUCINA. PART OF TRIUMPHAL ARCH

(Photograph Sansaini)

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FIG. 5.-- S. PETRONILLA IN DOMITILLA. ANTEROOM OF FIRST EDIFICE

(Photograph Sansaini)
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39~ RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER--W. FRANKL

stock of early elements which later disappear in R

in the Near East, remains to be decided.
1.75 m. below the front parts of the fifth-century church, we found remnants of an
edifice of the Antonine period. They consist of a series of cross-shaped piers and a
wall, which seem to form a portico facing Via Lata. The cross piers evidently carried
arches, 3.05 m. wide, and had pilasters added in front. The relation of this portico
to others along the Via Lata (such as the Porticus Septorum and the Porticus
Pollae), to the Ara Pacis and to the Obelisk of Campo Marzo, which were both situ-
ated behind the church, may prove of particular interest. Walled up in the founda-
tion wall of the reinforcement of the apse, we found fragments of columns and of a
small Roman stele or basis, with socle and cornice. Neither decorations nor inscrip-
tions are visible on it.
SS. Nereo ed Achilleo.
The church of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo is a relatively small edifice (25.73 m. by
17.74 m.), situated opposite the Baths of Caracalla, with its faqade turned towards
the ancient track of the Via Appia. Because of its small size, its importance in Roman
Early Christian architecture, though considerable, has hardly been noticed. The
original church was remodelled, but only slightly under Sixtus IV, between 1471
and 1484, when the octagonal piers that carry the wide arcades were arranged in th
interior and the clerestory was rebuilt with pointed windows, but on the same line
as the original one. Another change came in 1597-1602, when the church, which had
lost all importance about 1500, was given to Cardinal Baronius: the edifice wa
restored, its walls were covered with frescoes and rectangular windows were pierced
through the fifteenth-century clerestory.
The original walls, which are still preserved in the faqade, in the side walls, in the
rear corners of the clerestory and in the apse and its side rooms, show masonry typica
of the late eighth century; this date is confirmed by the figure of Leo III in the
mosaic of the triumphal arch, as well as by a notice in the Liber Pontificalis relating
to the construction of the edifice by Leo III (795-816)1: at this time the church was
constructed "ex novo," at some distance from where an older ecclesiastical edifice
had been situated.
The building of Leo III has the form of a basilica, with a nave and two ais
(fig. 3). It has a narthex, of which only the left flank remains in front of the churc
and a semicircular apse with three large windows, now walled up. On the right
the narthex remnants of an extensive convent building are preserved, belonging
two periods, one slightly later than the walls of the church, the other one of t
twelfth century. The most interesting part, however, consists in the two side rooms
that flank the apse. They form two approximately square two-storied constructions,
tower-like and originally almost as high as the apse. Their ground floor is accessi
from the aisles, while the upper chamber could evidently be reached only by wooden
staircases, since no traces of other staircases are visible. While the upper story
carried out in masonry identical with that of the church itself, though separate
from it by a break, the lower one not only has the same masonry as the church, but
is also connected with it without any break. The lower section of these side construe-
1 Liber Pontificalis ii, 30.

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N9, A u,

a6, too

Will:

FIG. 3.- SS. NEREO ED ACHILLEO. ISOMETRIC PROJECTION

(Drawing W. Frankl)

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394 RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER - W. FRANKL

tions must therefore form part of the original structur

was added slightly later.
The importance of this structure lies in the fact that t
the apse form the nearest possible parallel to the
diaconicon, so well known in churches of the Near East f
As a matter of fact, the whole of Near Eastern archit
use of these side chambers, which may be either on
latter arrangement is found, for instance, at Qalb Lo
century.' In Rome, on the other hand, this arrangem
a few years ago, although the one-storied pastophor
Tiburtina, which are visible on any ground plan of th
known. In the meantime one more instance of a one
discovered at S. Giovanni a Porta Latina, dated about
Thus the pastophories at SS. Nereo ed Achilleo are n
form part of a Near Eastern tradition in Rome, which st
ends in the early ninth century. While this seems not in
questions still remain to be explained: first, whethe
Roman churches are a Near Eastern import, or whet
the older, possibly Roman arrangement, where th
sacristy on one side and by a considerably larger bap
projecting beyond the limits of the church and access
from the church itself. Instances of this pattern are f
Stefano a Via Latina, about 450, and possibly at S.
If this were the case, we should have here an older R
by Near Eastern influences, which had transformed
rooms into regular pastophories. It seems, however, t
pastophories from the Near East is more likely. If th
question arises how it came to pass that at SS. Nereo
arrangement of the pastophories was adopted as late as
period when the Near Eastern models of this arrange
in Rome itself the Near Eastern influence was coming to
Next to the right flank of the church and in fron
Roman buildings were discovered by J. H. Parker in
summarily by Lanciani in the Forma Urbis Romae. W
one Roman wall, contained in a wall contiguous to th
proximately 5.70 m. long and parallel to the Roma
Forma Urbis Romae. Whether these remnants belong
building,5 which was replaced by the construction o
S. Lorenzo in Fonte

The ancient buildings which were formerly situated on the present site of Via
Cavour, which crosses the hill behind the little church of S. Lorenzo in Fonte, were

1 Butler, Early Churches in Syria, Princeton, 1929, pp. 71 ff.; 130 f.

2 Dehio-Bezold, Die kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes, 1888, pl. 17, 2.
3 Krautheimer, AJA. xi, 1936, p. 485 ff. 4 See above, p. 389.
5 It was possibly the Titulus de Fasciola; Kirsch, op. cit., pp. 90 ff.

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RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CHURCHES IN ROME 395

drawn by P. S. Bartoli in 1684 and published in his

Lanciani and Noack-Lehmann-Hartleben after his re
consisted of a wall with heating channels in its thickn
formed part of an aqueduct); a small room behind and a
it; and a large barrel-vaulted room underneath the wa
projected in front of them toward the valley. Since it
shells and mosaics, the room was evidently a nymphaeu
situated a round well-house, which was connected with the
staircase; it was contained in a terrace, which again pr
under the nymphaeum and was abutted by a travertine wa
a large, terraced, suburban villa.3 At present only the w
now accessible through a corridor from the valley side
situated above the former valley, so as to touch almost
its apse the travertine wall abutting the original, unde
contains niches for lamps in its walls, as they are fre
crypts so common in Roman eighth- and ninth-century ch
ment suggests that this passage should date from abou
This date is confirmed by the constructions which w
sixteenth-century church: two small rectangular room
situated, as it seems, on the axis of the well-house. Wh
brick work, ought to be of the twelfth century, the origi
are evidently from the eighth century, as is proved aga
the scanty remnants of some frescoes. They formed part
ing, which seems to have been erected when the ancient w
an object of particular veneration, and when it was nec
well-house by a corridor. Thus an arrangement is create
Early Christian archaeology: the ecclesiastical edifice,
building of special veneration, a memoria. The fact, ho
Fonte the ecclesiastical constructions (including the co
excludes the former assumption (which has already bee
grounds by Huelsen) 4 that this memoria was identica
Ippolito, mentioned in an inscription of the late fourth
a memoria of St. Lawrence, a saint whose name is ment
Lorenzo in Fonte at least from the late Middle Ages on
S. Maria de Metrio
The question of the memoria appears once more in connection with the ruins sout
of the arch of Titus, the so-called Terme di Eliogabalo. An excellent architect
survey of these ruins was made by Jonescu 6 a few years ago. He segregated in
analysis the older Roman parts, and pointed to the existence of a small, ecclesia
cal building within them. A new survey corrected his analysis in some points
1 Bartoli, Receuil des peintures antiques, 1757.
2 Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations, 1897, pp. 393 ff.; Noack-Lehmann-Hartleben, Pompeji, 1
pl. 56. 3 Lehmann-Hartleben, op. cit., frequently discusses this type, see pp. 188 ff.
* Ch. Huelsen, Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo, 1927, pp. 263, 286 f.
5 De Rossi, Bull Arch Crist. 1867, pp. 57 ff.
6 J. A. Jonescu, "Le cosidette Terme di Eliogabalo" . . .in Ephemeris Dacoromana iv, 1926, pp.
1 ff. As early as 1883 J. H. Parker, Archaeology of Rome vi, had pointed to the church.

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a r.l

FIG. 4.- TERRACE HOUSE NEAR S. LORENZO IN FONTE AFTER BARTOLI

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RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CHURCHES IN ROME 397

helped, above all, to clarify the appearance and the interp

cal building. Originally it was, as Jonescu had already st
struction, carried by four L-shaped corner piers, with arche
on the fourth side it had an apse added to it. All these w
height of about four meters. In the middle of the square
dently a hagiasma (holy well), accessible by a staircase f
seems clear that the whole construction was not just a simpl
an ecclesiastical edifice erected above a venerable place (wh
been the well). But while edifices of this type are well kn
East, they are quite unknown in the West. The apse con
struction, which creates a kind of ambulatory along the
semicircular niche in its front side, closed by marble sla
In other words, we are dealing here with a forerunner of th
intermediary link between the ambulatory under the syn
Near East) and the Roman annular crypts of the eigh
(Jonescu like all his predecessors, believed the constructi
While this construction within the apse seems to date from
masonry of the original edifice points to a period certainly n
of the sixth. Its importance lies in the fact that also archite
clearly represents a parallel to the first canopy-like mnemor
The connection with the Near East is evidently maintained
some time, hence the addition of cross wings to the original
century I and the even later installation of the "amb
Likewise, the name of the church, S. Maria de Metrio, w
tion of Demetrios, points to connections with the Near E
S. Petronilla in Domitilla.
The history of this catacomb church was partly clarified by a small excavation i
the summer of 1936, and an investigation of the walls excavated by De Rossi 2 i
1874 and 1875. The first edifice, the existence of which had been already observed by
De Rossi, evidently consisted of a small, square cubiculum of about 3 by 2.50 m.
with four arcosolia in its four tufa walls, and with the entrance near the corner o
the front wall.3 The sarcophagi of three martyrs are arranged in this cubiculum,
as to fill its space in a block. The new excavation showed that a trapezoidal anteroo
(7 m. x 6 m. x 5.50 m. x 6 m.) was situated in front of this cubiculum (fig. 5, p. 391). An
arched doorway connected both rooms; a second door led from the cubiculum int
the galleries of the catacombs, while the anteroom was likewise connected with them
by a passage. All these parts are constructed of the excellent brickwork common i
edifices of the second half of the fourth century, and may well be dated in the period
of Damasus I (366-84), who wrote one of his epigrams in honor of Saint Nereus an
Achilleus, fragments of which were found in 1874 and 1875.4 The church itself,
quite late construction built of opus mixtum, replaced these older structures, pre
serving only the tomb of the martyrs, which came to be situated under the apse; its

1 Jonescu, op. cit.

2 De Rossi, Bull Arch Crist. 1874, pp. 1 ff.; 1875, pp. 68 ff. Lefort, RA. 1874, i, p. 372 ff.; ii, 128 ff
3 Marucchi, Il cimitero di Domitilla, 1909 ff.
SCommissione di Archeologia Sacra, Rome; J. H. Parker, Archaeology of Rome xii, 1877, pl. XXI

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398 RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER -W. FRANKL

excentric arrangement may be explained by the

former constructions.
S. Susanna
A most important discovery was made during the summer of 1938 at S. Su
I had observed previously that at least the right upper wall of the church
was given its present form by Carlo Maderna in 1595-1603) still contained
remnants of an earlier edifice. This summer the buildings adjoining the right fla
the church were demolished and we were able to make a complete survey o
church and of the earlier buildings situated below its level. The following
were obtained:
(1) The church was a building of considerable size, with a nave 37.50 m. in
length, accompanied by two aisles and terminating in a semicircular apse. Its bric
work points definitely to the late eighth century, to the period when, according t
the Liber Pontificalis, Leo III (795-816) erected a basilica in lieu of the former titul
"ad duas domos" at this very place.'
Of this edifice the walls of the nave are completely preserved (fig. 6), with thirteen
windows in the clerestory, thirteen gallery openings carried by square brick piers
and below them thirteen arcades connecting the nave with the aisles. The support
of the arcades have disappeared, and since piers would have left some traces, they
must have been columns. As some remnants of the right aisle wall were still standing
this summer (they have since been completely demolished), the width of the aisle
could be determined at 4.65 m., the thickness of the walls at 0.76 m.; the height o
the nave was about 17.05 m., of the aisle 7.25 m., of the gallery 4.75 m. Remnants of
the facade, with thresholds of three doorways all leading into the nave, were traced,
thus indicating the level of the nave, not much under the present pavement. Th
semicircular apse is clearly recognizable.
The most extraordinary feature of this church is its galleries. They are almos
unique among Roman churches of the eighth and ninth centuries within the city
with the one exception of S. Maria in Cosmedin. If other churches in Rome
have galleries, as do S. Lorenzo f.l.m. and S. Agnese f.l.m., it is because they are
cemeterial basilicas, the main floor of which had to be set down to the level of th
surrounding catacombs, while an upper floor, that is the galleries, had to be kept
accessible at ground level. The reasons for which this particular type (which is def
nitely more in the Near Eastern tradition than in the Roman Early Christian) wa
decided upon by Leo III at S. Susanna, where it was not needed for liturgical reason
remain still to be clarified.
(2) More important from the Roman archaeologist's point of view are the rem-
nants underneath and adjoining this basilica. Some remnants of Roman walls situ-
ated under the nave have been known for a long time.2 A closer investigation shows
that they consist of two systems of walls: an older one with opus reticulatum walls
and brick work at the corners only, containing a column3 which evidences the
existence of a peristyle, ran on an axial system, oblique to the direction of the church;
a more recent one, with reticulatum foundations and with brick walls, ran on an axial
system carried over to the church. Both these systems, Roman I and Roman II,
1 Liber Pontificalis ii, p. 3. 2 Lanciani, BdI. 1869, p. 229 f.; Kirsch, op. cit., p. 73.
3 Photograph in F. Hendrichs, S. J., La voce delle chiese antichissime di Roma, 1933, fig. 37.

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FIG. 6.-- S. SUSANNA. RIGHT FLANK AND APSE

(Photograph Sansaini)

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400 RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER -W. FRANKL

could be observed during this summer in numerous re

well; at the same time it became evident that each of the
construction periods. The oldest remnants of the obl
two walls situated thirteen meters behind the end of the
the foundation wall of the right flank of the sevent
One consists of large, tufa blocks, each 52 cm. high, w
thick. It looks as though they had been taken from
to the North at a short distance and into which, dir
a large break seems to have been made).1 The o
incertum, only 50 cm. thick, which leans against the
wall could be traced for the length of eleven m. to the le
while the tufa wall disappeared; evidently it has been
system (see below). Next in time to them there would
wall with brick corners, under the nave. It extended also
remnants of a reticulatum wall were discovered adjoining
and belonging to system (I); close to it the base of a c
haps belongs to the peristyle, of which one column is
To system (I) belong, furthermore, a number of brick wa
right flank of the nave, partly behind its apse, where th
walls of the nuns' choir; their brick masonry shows t
first century A.D. to the first half of the second century
least three different construction periods, not including
opus incertum and tufa walls. They seem to belong no
different buildings, as is evidenced by the differences
slight differences in their direction.
Across this earlier system two very large edifices, cover
were erected at a later period, on an axial system cor
church (system II). The walls along the front half of t
which pertain to this system, evidently belonged to so
nants of numerous mosaic pavements and of pavement
uncovered. The walls of a second house are preserved u
of the church, particularly well in the left foundation w
they show the large openings commonly found in Rom
covered in an arch of the residence seems to point to t
tury,2 and so does the brick masonry of the walls. Th
be clearly determined in the second system. Their exis
sion "ad duas domos," used from the fourth to the eig
which during the fourth century was founded in them.3
The existence of the two Roman systems is interestin
with the urban development of the city in this quar
found in the neighbourhood (as evidenced by the Form
ings at S. Susanna may contribute toward a clarification
extent, the absolute chronology of this section of urba
RICHARD KRAUTHEIMER
VASSAR COLLEGE in collaboration with WOLFGANG FRANKL
1 Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae, pl. 10.
2 Thus I am kindly informed by Dr. H. Bloch.
3 Kirsch, op. cit., p. 71. 4 Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae, pl. 10.

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