Rome - part I

Santa Maria Maggiore

Basilica Santa  Maria Maggiore

We continued our tour as follows in the following text.
The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is the largest church in Rome dedicated to the 'Virgin Mary' was our next goal.
The church, which dates back to the fifth century, has a magnificent interior with a quite spectacular gilded ceiling and ornate chapels.
Santa Maria Maggiore  is one of four Papal basilicas in Rome (the others are the St. Peter's Basilica, the St. John's Basilica and the St. Paul's Basilica). The church is located on the Esquiline Hill. The name of the church, "major", implies that it is the most important of the eighty churches in Rome that are dedicated to Mary. Impressive!
The church is sometimes called the Santa Maria della Neve (St. Mary of the Snow) or Liberian Basilica, a reference to the medieval Legend of the Snow or Pope Liberius.

According to the legend Our Lady appeared to the  Pope Liberius and the Roman patrician John, landowner of Esquiline Hill. In this apparition Our Lady ordered them to build a church in her honor on the site which will be marked by snow.
Snow fell on August 5th at Esqviline Hill one of the seven Roman hills. Pope Liberius personally marked the boundaries of future basilica. The bell tower of the basilica is the highest of all bell towers of the Roman churches.

San Pietro in Vincoli

St. Peter in chains - San Pietro in Vincoli

St. Peter in chains is the Catholic Church and another basilica in Rome best konown by  Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses and the reliquary chains that St. Peter was chained in Jerusalem. In the church was buried Croatian artist Julius Klovic who is regarded as the most important miniaturist of his time. On the tombstone inscribed Ivlio Clovio de Croatia.

To be continued......