Between the end of IV century and the fourth decade of the following century, a great three-nave basilica was erected on the remains of a rich Imperial-age
domus, demolished to the foundations; after a few years, the church dedicated to the martyr Pietro or the Apostles was almost completely reconstructed, with a structure still visible today.
The location, that is the summit of the hill identified with the ancient Fagutale, is situated on the edge of the Regio III – Iside and Serapide, where many residences were built since the Archaic period in a dominant position compared to the Suburra and Foro valleys underneath.
The basilica was constructed during the first part of the long Christianization period that would have led to the transformation of the ancient city; a phase close to the Sack of Alaric. The scenario portrays a city which signs of the slow decline were not yet noticeable. During the first decades of the fifth century, the last gladiator
munera were held near the Amphitheatre, the Thermae of the Emperor Traiano on the adjacent Oppio hill were still in use and the Forums would still have been subjects to public interventions.
It is possible that the chains that kept Pietro imprisoned in Rome were already preserved in the basilica since the first years of its existence. Today, they are exposed under the main altar, in a reliquary. The miracle described with the fusion of the Roman chains to the ones that kept Pietro in Erode’s prison in Jerusalem also dates back to the fifth century. The imperial family of Bisanzio was protagonist of many of the early stories about the church and its relics; in particular, Licina Eudossia, daughter of Teodosio II, would have given the name to the basilica, once called
titulus Eudoxiae. The first reference to the name dates back to the Early Middle Ages, together with
titulus ad Vinculus, the name that the basilica would formally acquire only during the XI century, replacing the official dedication to Pietro and Paolo
titulus apostolorum.
The inside of the basilica is subdivided by antique hymettian marble columns and preserves many evidences of its long history: from the early phase epigraphs to the nineteenth century ensemble of the crypt desired by Pio IX in the presbytery. Its construction led to the finding under the altar of the fourth century sarcophagus containing the relics of the Maccabee brothers.
Transformed by the Renaissance interventions carried out by Francesco and Giuliano della Rovere, later Pope Sisto IV and Giulio II, the basilica conserves the grave and part of the altar belonging to the philosopher Niccolò Cusano. The latter was ascribed to the sculptor Andrea Bregno and to other prominent figures in Roman early Renaissance, such as the Pollaiolo brothers and Giovanni Andrea de Bussi. The Mausoleum to Giulio II and the world-famous statue of the Moses, both by Michelangelo, have been since a long time the major reason for visitors to enter the church. On the baroque altars alternating to the rich seventeenth century graves, many important artworks are exposed, such as the Lamentation of Christ attributed to Pomarancio and St. Margherita from Antiochia by Guercino.
The large fresco on the apse, attributed to Jacopo Coppi called Il Meglio dates back to the late Renaissance, whilst the wooden vault by Francesco Fontana with the Miracle of the Chains painted in the middle by Giovanni Parodi dates back to the first part of the eighteenth century.
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