Interior view of the sanctuary of Santa Maria Antiqua from the nave. Photograph by Dr. Steven Zucker for Smarthistory. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Santa Maria Antiqua is an ancient church located at the base of the Palatine Hill near the Roman Forum whose material remains bear witness to a stage in the eternal city’s transition from a classical to a medieval metropolis. Damaged by a landslide in 847 C.E., Santa Maria Antiqua lay forgotten for nearly one millennium before being unearthed during archaeological excavations carried out by Giacomo Boni in 1900. Its remarkably well-preserved frescoes, painted from the sixth through the eighth centuries, offer clues to the individuals and communities who lived and worshiped in the vicinity of the Palatine at a time when the old capital of the Roman Empire was directly ruled by the ‘New Rome’ of the eastern empire, Constantinople.

About

This site is maintained by librarian and graduate student Peter Otis and was created for Great Digs: Important Sites of the Classical, Late Antique and Islamic Worlds, a core course for the Archaeology of the Classical, Late Antique and Islamic Worlds concentration in the Master of Arts, Liberal Studies (MALS) program at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center.

The majority of the images featured on this site were taken by Dr. Steven Zucker and generously made available for free use through smarthistory.org.

If you would like to ask any questions about this site, please contact me at peternicholasotis@gmail.com.

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