The site is more known for the Holy Steps preceding the chapel which according to tradition are the 28 steps ascended by Christ when he met Pilate to be judged in the Praetorium of Jerusalem. The popular belief is still so strong and felt that pilgrims kneel down ascending them. Just few visitors though enter the small oratory located at the top of the Holy Steps (Scala santa) which can be seen through an iron grating, probably ignoring the fact that it has recently opened to visitors. You can buy your ticket at the gift shop (3,50 euros) and enter the small chapel. The frescoes, whose colors are still so vibrant, were rediscovered in recent years under later additions. This is the reason why their pigments survived almost intact.
Symbols of the 4 evangelists on the ceiling.
The Chapel of St. Lawrence at the Lateran was the very private and holy chapel of the popes who resided there from the days of Constantine. Their palace doesn’t exist anymore but their chapel known as Sancta Sanctorum, Holy of Holies, has survived: a precious gem with magnificent frescoes painted around 1280 under the pope Nicholas III.
St. Stephen’s martyrdom. On the left corner the later additions which covered the medieval frescoes.
They depict the martyrdoms of Peter, Paul, Lawrence, Agnes and Stephen. Another scene shows an episode of the life of St. Nicholas. In the ‘donor scene’ St. Peter and St. Paul offer a miniature of the chapel to the pope Nicholas III.
The donor scene.
They anticipate Giotto’s realism, representing a crucial transition from the fixed Byzantine art models. The Chapel was a venerated medieval shrine for all the precious relics it contained, including the veil of Mary and her hair, Jesus’ umbilicus and foreskin, the skulls of St. Peter and St. Paul and an icon of Christ referred to as ‘acheropita’ (not made by human hands) and that very probably dates back to V century. The icon is still there.
St. Peter’s Crucifixion.
The chapel was built by marble workers of the Cosma family: they chiseled their signature on the wall by the entrance.
Cosma’s signature.
Only in recent years the chapel was opened to the public, for more than 700 years it was exclusively accessible by the pontiff and his entourage. The painter is unknown and the subjets were related to some of the relics housed here as the stones of Stephen or the grate of Lawrence.
Scala Santa – more info and opening hours.
