The Basilica of San Lorenzo Outside the Walls is a church in Rome, one of the Seven Churches, located at the beginning of the extra-urban section of the Via Tiburtina.
The primitive basilica (Basilica maior) was built in the 4th century by the emperor Constantine near the tomb of the martyr Lorenzo, like other cemetery basilicas of the same period (San Sebastiano on the Via Appia, Sant'Agnese fuori le mura , Santi Marcellino and Pietro, at Torpignattara).
Just above the tomb a small oratory was built at the same time.
The basilica has three naves, and is composed of the two basilicas built at different times, contiguous but not coaxial to each other: the Pelagian one (6th century), raised and transformed into a presbytery; and the Honorian one (XIII century), which constitutes the main corpus of the building.
During the Second World War, the cathedral was completely destroyed due to Allied bombing, only to be rebuilt from the rubble. Numerous frescoes have been lost, while the remains of the ancient church were collected where the Verano cemetery is now located.
Precisely in this place some scholars - first and foremost Alfredo Barbagallo, president of the Association of Arts and Mystery - claim that the Holy Grail is hidden, that mysterious relic, the subject of a cult film The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks. Entrusted to San Lorenzo in 258 by Pope Sixtus II, the cup in which Jesus drank wine during the Last Supper would have been buried together with the deacon.
Legends and popular beliefs chase each other to touch the four corners of the world, but without satisfactory results. The proofs, the experts are sure, are very evident, judging by the symbols contained in the iconography of the frescoes: for example, the representation of a chalice on the mosaic at the point where it is believed that the remains of the saint were originally placed or a series of ancient guides inherent to the Basilica in which a terracotta funnel is mentioned carved in a pagan colombarium in the underground part.
Basilica of San Lorenzo outside the walls
Address: Piazzale del Verano, 3
Phone: 06 491511
Site:
https://www.basilicadisanlorenzo.comLocation inserted by
Paola Bonometti