San Lorenzo fuori le Mura

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura is a shrine to the martyred Roman deacon, Saint Lawrence. The facade was rebuilt after being devastated by an Allied bombing on July 19, 1943; the frescoes on the superior part were lost.

The basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura — also known in the English language as Saint Lawrence outside the Walls — is one of the most important basilica churches and one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome.

The basilica is the shrine tomb of the church's namesake, Saint Lawrence, one of the first seven deacons of Rome martyred in 258. Pope Pius IX, awaiting canonization into sainthood, is also buried at the basilica. Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, a founding father of the European Union, rests in the basilica.

De Gasperi burial in San Lorenzo. Over the burial are visible the frescoes

Before the present-day basilica was constructed, the estate upon which it sits was once home to a small oratory built by Emperor Constantine I. The emperor built it over the site on which it was believed that Saint Lawrence was executed. In the 580s, Pope Pelagius II commissioned the construction of a church over the site, in honor of the martyr. In the 13th century, Pope Honorius III commissioned the construction of another church in front of the older structure. It was adorned with frescoes depicting the lives of Saint Lawrence, and the first martyred deacon Saint Stephen, who is interred with Lawrence in the confessio under the high altar. The two structures were united as part of a program of urban renewal. Excavations have revealed several other crypts of various people, buried below street level. Saint Hilarius is buried here.

In relatively more recent history, the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura was home to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1374 to 1847. In 1943, the church was bombed during World War II. Restoration lasted until 1948, allowing some 19th century accretions to be removed; however, the frescoes on the facade were lost.