Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

Today's basilica allegedly stands on the site of the place of worship that St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, had built in the 4th century to house the relics of the Cross she had brought back to Rome from a journey to the Holy Land. Over the centuries, the basilica has been extensively remodelled, enlarged and rebuilt. The two crucial architectural phases date back to the 12th and 18th centuries. To the former belongs the bell tower; to the latter, we owe above all the beautiful Borromini-inspired façade, one of the masterpieces of the Roman Baroque.

The Baroque interior is divided into three naves by colossal granite columns, some of which were incorporated into pillars added in the 18th century. The fresco in the basin illustrating the discovery of the relics by the empress was painted by Antoniazzo Romano in around 1492. To the right of the apse is the Chapel of St. Helena, decorated with a mosaic believed to be by Melozzo da Forli or Baldassarre Peruzzi, a 16th-century remake of a 4th-century original. Under the floor of the chapel, according to tradition, the consecrated earth taken from Mount Calvary and brought to Rome together with the relics was spread. The relics are kept in the modern chapel to the left of the apse and consist of three fragments of the cross, part of the crown of thorns, a sacred nail and a fragment of the walnut wood panel that, according to tradition, was placed on top of the cross, bearing the inscription "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" in the three languages Latin, Hebrew and Greek.