Overview
St. John Lateran is the cathedral of Rome and is one of the stations, along with St. Peter's in the Vatican, St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and St. Sebastian Outside the Walls, of the Pilgrimage of the Seven Churches, a route started by St. Philip Neri in the 16th century.
Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist and the Most Holy Saviour, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran was built between 313 and 318 at the behest of Constantine on top of previous buildings and subsequently restored several times. Domenico Fontana, at the time of Sixtus V, added the loggia delle benedizioni, while Francesco Borromini worked on the naves between 1646 and 1657.
Between 1732 and 1735, Alessandro Galilei created the imposing façade surmounted by fifteen 7-metre statues of Christ, St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist and the Doctors of the Church. In the portico, the main entrance has bronze doors originating from the Roman Curia, while the last door on the right is the Holy Door, opened only in Jubilee years. The vast interior, designed by Borromini, is 130 metres long, has five naves, a Cosmatesque floor and a 16th-century wooden ceiling. Also by Borromini are the 12 aedicules located along the central nave, which house huge statues of the apostles. The monumental tabernacle, dating from 1367, houses the relics of the heads of Saints Peter and Paul.
On the apse, rebuilt in the 19th century by Francesco Vespignani, can be seen the wonderful mosaic by Jacopo Torriti created at the end of the 13th century depicting Christ and the heavenly Jerusalem: the four rivers flowing from the jewelled cross in the centre represent the Gospels, and the sheep and deer quenching their thirst symbolise the faithful. Finally, the cloister, on small paired columns, was built between 1215 and 1232 by the Vassalletto family and is an admirable example of Cosmatesque art.
