History An apse lined with mosaics and open to the air still preserves the memory of one of the most famous halls of the ancient palace, the "
Triclinium" of
Pope Leo III, which was the state banqueting hall. The existing structure is not ancient, but some portions of the original mosaics may have been preserved in the tripartite mosaic of its niche. In the center Christ gives to the
Apostles their mission; on the left he gives the keys of the kingdom of heaven to
Pope Sylvester I and the
Labarum to
Emperor Constantine I; and on the right
Peter gives the papal
stole to
Pope Leo III and the standard to
Charlemagne. Some few remains of the original buildings may still be traced in the
city walls outside the
Gate of Saint John, and a large wall decorated with paintings was uncovered in the 18th century within the archbasilica behind the Lancellotti Chapel. A few traces of older buildings were also revealed during the excavations of 1880, when the work of extending the apse was in progress, but nothing of importance was published. A great many donations from the Popes and other benefactors to the archbasilica are recorded in the
Liber Pontificalis, and its splendor at an early period was such that it became known as the "Basilica Aurea", or "Golden Basilica". This splendor drew upon it the
attack of the Vandals, who stripped it of all its treasures.
Pope Leo I restored it around AD 460, and it was again restored by
Pope Hadrian I. In 897, it was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake:
ab altari usque ad portas cecidit ("it collapsed from the altar to the doors"). The damage was so extensive that it was difficult to trace the lines of the old building, but these were mostly respected and the new building was of the same dimensions as the old. This second basilica stood for 400 years before it burned in 1308. It was rebuilt by
Pope Clement V and
Pope John XXII. It burned once more in 1360, and was rebuilt by
Pope Urban V. Through vicissitudes the archbasilica retained its ancient form, being divided by rows of columns into aisles, and having in front a
peristyle surrounded by colonnades with a fountain in the middle, the conventional Late Antique format that was also followed by the old
Saint Peter's Basilica. The façade had three windows and was embellished with a mosaic representing Christ as the Savior of the world. The porticoes were frescoed, probably not earlier than the 12th century, commemorating the
Roman fleet under
Vespasian, the taking of
Jerusalem, the Baptism of
Emperor Constantine I and his
"Donation" of the Papal States to the
Catholic Church. Inside the archbasilica the columns no doubt ran, as in all other basilicas of the same date, the whole length of the church, from east to west. In one of the rebuildings, probably that which was carried out by
Pope Clement V, a transverse nave was introduced, imitated no doubt from the one which had been added, long before this, to the
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Probably at this time the archbasilica was enlarged. Some portions of the older buildings survive. Among them the pavement of medieval
Cosmatesque work, and the statues of
Saint Peter and
Saint Paul, now in the
cloister. The graceful
ciborium over the high altar, which looks out of place in its present surroundings, dates from 1369. The throne of red marble on which the Popes sat, is now in the
Vatican Museums. It was part of a pair, but the other was plundered and taken away by
Napoleon and is now in the Louvre. Another papal throne, the
sedia stercoraria, is now in the
Lateran Cloister. It owes its unsavory name to the anthem sung at previous Papal coronations, "De
stercore erigens pauperem" ("lifting up the poor out of the dunghill", from
Psalm 112). From the 5th century, there were seven oratories surrounding the archbasilica. These before long were incorporated into the church. The devotion of visiting these oratories, which was maintained through the Mediaeval Ages, gave rise to the similar devotion of the seven altars, still common in many churches of Rome and elsewhere. Of the façade by
Alessandro Galilei (1735), the cliché assessment has been that it is the façade of a
palace, not of a church. Galilei's front, which is a screen across the older front creating a
narthex or vestibule, does express the nave and double aisles of the archbasilica, which required a central bay wider than the rest of the sequence. Galilei provided it, without abandoning the range of identical arch-headed openings, by extending the central window by flanking columns that support the arch, in the familiar
Serlian motif. By bringing the central bay forward very slightly, and capping it with a pediment that breaks into the roof balustrade, Galilei provided an entrance doorway on a more than colossal scale, framed in the paired colossal
Corinthian pilasters that tie together the façade in the manner introduced at
Michelangelo's
palace on the Campidoglio. In the narthex of the church, is a 4th-century statue of emperor Constantine. It was found elsewhere in Rome, and moved to this site by order of
Pope Clement XII. Between the archbasilica and the city wall there was a great monastery, in which dwelt the community of monks whose duty it was to provide the services in the archbasilica. The only part of it which still survives is the 13th century
cloister, surrounded by
columns of inlaid
marble. They are of a style intermediate between the
Romanesque proper and the
Gothic, and are the work of
Vassellectus and the
Cosmati.
Statues of the Apostles The twelve niches created in
Francesco Borromini's architecture were left vacant for decades. When in 1702
Pope Clement XI and
Benedetto Cardinal Pamphili, archpriests of the archbasilica, announced their grand scheme for twelve larger-than-life sculptures of the
Apostles (
Judas Iscariot replaced by
Saint Paul, instead of
Saint Matthias) to fill the niches, the commission was opened to all the premier sculptors of late
Baroque Rome. Each statue was to be sponsored by an illustrious prince with the Pope himself sponsoring that of
Saint Peter and Cardinal Pamphili that of
Saint John the Evangelist. Most of the sculptors were given a sketch drawn by Pope Clement's favorite painter,
Carlo Maratta, to which they were to adhere, but with the notable exception being
Pierre Le Gros the Younger, who successfully refused to sculpt to Maratta's design and consequently was not given a sketch.
Baptistery and Holy Stairs , adjacent to the Archbasilica The octagonal Lateran baptistery stands somewhat apart from the archbasilica. It was founded by
Pope Sixtus III, perhaps on an earlier structure, for a legend arose that
Emperor Constantine I was baptized there and enriched the edifice. The baptistery was for many generations the only baptistery in Rome, and its octagonal structure, centered upon the large basin for full immersions, provided a model for others throughout Italy, and even an iconic motif of
illuminated manuscripts known as "the
fountain of life". The
Scala Sancta, or Holy Stairs, are white marble steps encased in wooden ones. They supposedly form the staircase which once led to the praetorium of
Pontius Pilate in
Jerusalem and which, therefore, were sanctified by the footsteps of
Jesus Christ during His
Passion. The marble stairs are visible through openings in the wooden risers. Their translation from Jerusalem to the Lateran Palace in the 4th century is credited to
Saint Empress Helena, the mother of the then-Emperor
Constantine I. In 1589,
Pope Sixtus V relocated the steps to their present location in front of the ancient palatine chapel named the
Sancta Sanctorum.
Ferraù Fenzoni completed some of the frescoes on the walls. ==Tabula Magna Lateranensis==